Courier Evri has reported its “best-ever” Christmas and peak trading period. The  parcel delivery giant said it handled a record-breaking 173 million parcels in the nine weeks to 28 December,  a 12% increase on the previous year.

The company, formerly Hermes, said it also recorded its biggest individual trading week, processing 24.7 million parcels in the seven days following Black Friday.

On its busiest day, 4 December, Evri delivered nearly 3.8 million parcels, averaging 2.7 million deliveries per day during the festive period, it said.

It underlines just how online-focused much of festive season shopping has become in recent years.

During the key festive period, it noted domestic parcel volumes rose by 6.9%, while overseas inbound trade surged 24%, “driven by demand for value-oriented online shopping”.

To prepare for the peak period, Evri said it recruited 9,000 additional couriers and 1,000 employees across other parts of the business while also enhancing customer service, “offering improved contact options and new delivery preferences for customers with accessibility needs”.

Confirming that Evri saw “record volumes of deliveries and double-digit growth” over the period, CEO Martijn De Lange said: “We continue to see fast growth towards our five-year target to become a billion-parcel-a-year business and the Christmas trading period was no exception with our delivery volumes demonstrating that retailers online offerings fared much better than expected.”

He added: “During a festive season that saw approximately 40 million UK adults doing most of their Christmas shopping online, the investments in our network and customer service paid off – sustaining our yearly average of more than 99% of standard parcels being delivered on time.”