- Report in Sunday Times details High Court claim from rival Tuffnells
- Affair has already seen an internal investigation
- DX intends to 'robustly defend' its position
Responding to a report in the Sunday Times, delivery and logistics firm DX (DX.:AIM) confirmed it had received a legal claim from Sheffield-based logistics firm Tuffnell Parcels Express in relation to obtaining confidential information.
The newspaper story detailed £50 payments to a delivery driver ‘Pat’, and said the claim, which has been lodged with the High Court, alleged former Tuffnells employees which had moved over to DX had conspired to obtain daily customer service reports.
The shares fell 6.7% to 27.8p, off their earlier lows, as investors reacted to the latest chapter in the saga.
DX has already conducted a corporate governance inquiry - with the conclusions posted in September 2022. In summary these concluded ‘confidential competitor information’ was obtained in exchange for an offer of payment, that therefore there ‘may have been a breach’ of bribery laws and that there were efforts to stifle the investigation and some of the employees involved had not been properly punished.
The shares were also suspended between January and October 2022 as the probe prevented its accounts from being published.
DX ‘INTENDS TO DEFEND ITS POSITION ROBUSTLY’
Chief executive Lloyd Dunn stepped down ahead of the findings being made known, internal appointment Pail Ibbetson took over as CEO at the end of January.
Today the company said: ‘The group intends to defend its position robustly and will respond to the claim in due course.
Adding that: ‘As matters are now subject to legal proceedings, the company will not provide further comment until the appropriate time.’
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould commented: ‘The £50 payments offered to ‘Pat’ the delivery driver in exchange for the confidential corporate information make it sound like an off-the-wall episode in the life of Greendale’s favourite postie.
‘The company desperately needs to move on from the scandal and continue to capitalise on the progress it made during the pandemic when there was a sizeable increase in demand for parcel deliveries. Previously the company had a chequered history as a listed firm, littered with profit warnings and dividend cuts, so it is important to clean up this mess as soon as it can.’
Disclaimer: Financial services company AJ Bell referenced in the article owns Shares magazine. The author of the article (Tom Sieber) and the editor of the article (James Crux) own shares in AJ Bell.
