Amtrak Express Parcels is providing express delivery services for Oddbins Direct, the online and telesales ordering service run by Oddbins, the award winning wine merchant and drinks retailer.  By providing next day deliveries to homes and businesses nationwide, the Amtrak service is underpinning major expansion of Oddbins Direct as the business meets the growing demand for drinks as gifts.

Oddbins Direct is using Amtrak's specially-developed fragile goods handling service, Winetrak. Unlike other online wine retailers, Oddbins Direct does not restrict customers with minimum orders and can deliver just a single bottle of wine if required; flexibility that is appealing in their target gift market. 

Out of 55,000 consignments shipped by Oddbins last year, 30,000 were shipped in the 3 weeks before Christmas.  To assist in peak times, Amtrak will be providing additional call handling through a newly opened corporate customer service centre in Bristol.

"Over the years we have worked with numerous carriers and, for us, customer service is key, followed by competitive pricing.  Amtrak has delivered on both fronts and it is an added bonus to have good local depot support.  Oddbins Direct's new website makes online ordering very easy and we see the close relationship with Amtrak as vital to the success of this service" says Neil Bench, Oddbins Customer Service and Direct Sales Manager.

Oddbins was formed in 1963 to deliver bin-ends and oddments of wine to the restaurants and clubs of London's West End.  Now part of the French multi-national, the Bordeaux-based Castel Group, Oddbins has 270 stores in the UK.  Oddbins runs its own local delivery service for customers in the catchment areas of its stores.  The Amtrak service is solely for web and telephone orders placed through Oddbins Direct.