Holland & Barrett shifts Irish fulfilment in €17.5m move

Holland & Barrett will invest €17.5 million (c. £14.65 million) over the next three years in digital and retail fulfilment in Ireland, moving Irish online-order fulfilment from the UK to Ireland on 1 November 2026 through an expanded partnership with Kildare-based Road Truck Services (RTS).

What changes on 1 November 2026?

RTS will handle Holland & Barrett’s Irish online fulfilment from Ireland under a three-year agreement. The partnership extends an eight-year relationship already spanning import, customs, warehousing and distribution, adding a digital operation to RTS’s existing retail work.

The €17.5 million programme has two disclosed components:

• €8.2 million (c. £6.86 million) for a new digital fulfilment model.
• €9.3 million (c. £7.78 million) for existing retail fulfilment operations with RTS.

Holland & Barrett will also place around €1.5 million (c. £1.26 million) of additional stock locally. That takes its total Irish stockholding to approximately €4.7 million (c. £3.93 million), putting more inventory closer to the customer base before orders are dispatched.

The retailer expects around 328,000 orders and 1.8 million units to flow through the Irish logistics network each year. The forecast links a larger local stock position with a disclosed order and unit workload rather than an unspecified capacity claim.

Group CFO Vineta Bajaj said: “Ireland is one of our strongest-performing markets and an important part of Holland & Barrett’s growth story. We’re seeing real momentum across both stores and digital.”

How large is Ireland’s operating base?

Approximately 2.8 million customers shopped with the business in Ireland over the past year, including 300,000 online. Holland & Barrett operates 70 stores and employs 419 colleagues, with headcount up 4% during the same period.

The retailer opened three stores and completed three relocations. Holland & Barrett has now modernized 90% of its Irish estate, including the recently opened 5,909-square-foot Galway store.

What changes for RTS, carriers and forwarders?

For RTS, the expanded three-year agreement adds digital fulfilment to an eight-year retail relationship. The Kildare-based operator already covers import, customs, warehousing and distribution, giving Holland & Barrett one partner across inbound stock and customer-order fulfilment.

For Holland & Barrett, Irish online orders will no longer go through UK fulfilment; RTS will process them in Ireland from local stock. That places more order volume through the Irish operation and closer to customers, although the announcement provides no quantified delivery-time or cost saving.

For shippers, carriers and freight forwarders, no additional transport provider appears in the announcement. Holland & Barrett also discloses no TEU, tonnage, trailer count, sorting capacity or rate, so the measurable freight signal is the retail flow: 328,000 expected annual orders, 1.8 million units and a €4.7 million local inventory base.

Bajaj said: “Holding more stock locally will help us deliver faster and offer greater choice and availability, while allowing us to continue investing in Ireland and building our presence in what is a very important market for us.”

She also said the group would continue investing in “the people, infrastructure and partnerships” supporting Irish growth. The expanded RTS role will bring more of Holland & Barrett’s Irish operation closer to customers, management said.

What should the market watch next?

The first test begins on 1 November 2026, when Irish online fulfilment transfers from the UK to Ireland. Holland & Barrett expects the expanded RTS model to support faster delivery and greater product availability as the retailer continues to grow across stores and digital.

The three-year programme commits €17.5 million to the transition, including €8.2 million for digital fulfilment and €9.3 million for retail operations. The forward test is capacity: RTS must absorb 328,000 orders and 1.8 million units annually from 1 November 2026, while the retailer has set no service-level targets for the promised faster delivery and greater availability.