Based in Clayton-le-Moors, Accrington, World Options has 120 franchisees and agents across the UK, US, Australia, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

A tech-enabled shipping service provider, it serves over 10,000 SMEs with their shipping requirements, from small parcels to large freight, both domestically and internationally.

Milan-based MBE Worldwide, meanwhile, provides e-commerce, fulfillment, shipping, marketing, and print to SMEs and consumers.

In 2021, the company served over one million business customers worldwide, generating €1.01bn (£860m) of system wide sales, through over 2,900 service centres in 53 countries, and €24bn of gross merchandise value traded through its PrestaShop e-commerce platform.

The group, which last year acquired Mail Boxes Etc’s UK operation MBE UK & Ireland, said the deal for World Options, which was announced yesterday (14 July), “represents another relevant step in MBE’s growth” by adding a committed network of sales-oriented entrepreneurs and strengthening its position as “a global commerce platform for businesses”.

“World Options is an excellent strategic addition for MBE because of its entrepreneur-driven, people-centric, customer-first business model, which perfectly fits with MBE business and culture,” said Paolo Fiorelli, chairman and CEO of MBE.

“We welcome World Options to the MBE family and we look forward to working together to continue strengthening our integrated platform – both physical and digital – to support our customers’ growth.”

Stewart Butler, CEO and founder of World Options, added: “This is an exciting development for World Options. Combining forces with MBE creates unique opportunities to grow our business in new ways to benefit our franchisees and our loyal customers with colleagues similarly steeped in managing a franchise-based network of entrepreneurs.”

Browne Jacobson acted as legal adviser to World Options on the deal.