Makro has acquired a majority stake in last-mile delivery startup, Wumdrop, which will allow the retailer to shrink the delivery window in getting products to its customers.

Wumdrop specialises in short-distance last-mile deliveries, reducing the delivery times to customers within 20 kilometres of its partnered stores from three days to just three hours.

Makro has already rolled out Wumdrop’s services to 16 stores in Durban, Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg, with an average delivery turnaround time of two and half hours so far.

According to Wumdrop founder Simon Hartley, the new acquisition will allow Makro to offer its customers a “flexible and anxiety free shopping experience”.

“The move also cements Wumdrop’s ability to offer lower and simpler, flat rate rpices across the board, the benefit of which is passed on to new and existing Wumdrop customers, which includes The Foschini Group, Bottles, Standard Bank and Zando,” he said.

Dean Bauer, Makro supply chain director, said that the tech used by Wumdrop is flexible and solid, and allows for integration with any retailer, big or small. For these reasons, and after extensive testing, Makro could not say no to the chance to acquire a stake.

The companies did not disclose the value of the transaction.

Wumdrop is now busy integrating with Builder’s Warehouse and Mass Discounters, and deliveries from those companies will start in 2018, the group said.