Scurri

Located in Wexford town, Scurri provides cloud-based software that optimises the online ordering, shipping, and delivery process for retailers.

Scurri’s platform allows retailers to create accurate labels, track shipments from dispatch to delivery and provide analytics. It also helps businesses ship their products anywhere in the world through its network of carrier integrations. Some of Scurri’s customers include eBay, The Perfume Shop, and Gousto.

Scurri was founded by Rory O’Connor in 2010. Following a career in sales and marketing with Waterford Crystal, Rory says that this is where he learned that selling luxury goods is so much more about the experience than the actual product. “One of the critical elements was distribution and getting the product to the customer with absolute guaranteed customer service; we looked at every aspect of the brand, from how it was displayed, what was marketed, how it looked in the store and how it got your delivery was a hugely important aspect. This was before online sales really started to develop, so it really helped me prepare for what we do at Scurri. We really understood the concept and got into the absolute nitty-gritty of delivery.”

This foundation knowledge has clearly reaped rewards as Scurri will power over 100 million parcel deliveries this year by enabling merchants to present the most efficient delivery option via more than 700 carrier services. Rory however says that he ‘fell into IT’. In 1999 Rory oversaw a major project at Waterford Crystal which was a SAP implementation. He says, “We got a really great leader from Apple for the SAP implementation, and he brought all the kind of Apple way of thinking, which was new and refreshing and very much tech-focused. This was a massive IT project and after implementation, I stayed focused on that area of work afterwards.”

A few years later Rory was trying to purchase a set of alloy wheels for his car in the mid-lands and arrange delivery to Wexford, the task met dead end after dead end and with a list of extortionate delivery costs. He figured there was something in that in terms of a business solution and in 2010 Scurri was founded.

These days the company has offices in Ireland and London, and the Scurri technology now manages in excess of 100 million parcel deliveries annually for eCommerce merchants including eBay, HarperCollins, The Perfume Shop and Bulk Powders to name a few and are integrated with delivery partners such as UPS, Royal Mail, An Post, DHL, TNT, DPD, Yodel, Hermes and many more.

In 2021 Scurri announced a €9 million investment to accelerate growth in the European markets. This brings the Wexford-based company’s total funding to €15.3 million to date. Rory says, “Our main markets are the UK, Germany, India, and then Ireland. We have started to branch out into more of Europe, and that will be our focus; to get more of a footprint into the European market over the next couple of years.”

Scurri is also officially a ‘Great Place To Work’. They have been officially recognised as one of the Best Workplaces in Ireland in 2022. It is Scurri’s fourth consecutive year to be named as a top Irish workplace, which is assessed through Great Place to Work’s robust ‘Trust Index©’ employee survey and a thorough ‘Culture Audit©’ assessment of their policies and practices. Scurri was recognised as the 28th Best Small Workplace in Ireland 2022 from a list of 30 companies, which includes Bewleys, Promed and Avvio.

With over 50 staff members, Rory says, they attract great talent by offering a fantastic work experience. “We have focused on building a culture that allows people to develop and to have fun working on interesting and innovative projects. We also have a set of values that we really, really live by. There’s been a huge realisation of the importance of the supply chain over the last couple of years, people really now understand how important it is; the Suez Canal getting blocked really made people so aware of the logistics. It’s not rocket science, but it is very complicated. There are a lot of big problems to be solved and our engineers very much enjoy that kind of work and having big kinds of problems to solve when they come to work, for an engineer that’s really important because they want to see that they make a difference. We ship 10 billion worth of goods every year and growing, so by doing a piece of work, it can actually have a fundamental impact on a significant number of businesses.”

Speaking about the establishment of the South East Technological University Rory says, “It’s been well proven that anywhere that there is a university that innovation follows. I’ve always been quite vocal about how that can help us as a company and as a region. We incubated out of Waterford Institute of Technology, so we have a strong relationship with Waterford. I really believe that the more that’s invested in technology and education the more it benefits all of us not just Scurri, but the entire southeast region.

Basing the business in Wexford was always something that Rory felt was hugely important to him. “I think it’s really important to provide inspiration, if we can have some successes in technology in the Southeast, what happens is that you can demonstrate that this kind of success can happen anywhere. It allows people to have jobs locally, where people are not commuting miles and miles each day, which is not the kind of lifestyle that is good for people. I also feel that it is really important to create a business locally that contributes locally as well. When people come into the office, they buy a coffee locally on their way and that helps keep the coffee shop open. I like the fact that we take from the locality – we take knowledge and people and we use the resources that are there, but we also give back and I think that’s really important.”

For further details, see Scurri.com