Logistics giant Wincanton is buying home delivery specialist The Lane Group, a well known medium sized company that has a strong home delivery service, working for customers such as Homebase, Magnet, Electrolux and Bosch.

The move reflects the strong growth in home deliver and more customers order goods through the internet. The recent launch of Tesco's non-food home delivery service shows the potential in this market. The Lane Group is well know for its high service levels, as show by it winning a Motor Transport Award last year. According to Wincanton "this is a sector that is ripe for improvement as the demands on home delivery operations become increasingly complex and smaller companies find it difficult to respond." The reality is that the Lane Group can probably show Wincanton how to do home delivery.

The company has, however, struggled to show consistently strong profits and it has for long been tipped as a take-over target. Rebecca Jenkins, managing director is very well known and respected in the industry.