History & Numbers

Founded by Sir Clive Bourne at the young age of 19 in March 1962 from a telephone box near Shoreditch, East London, Seabourne quickly became a leading parcel delivery service in Europe. 

Seabourne was the first forwarding agent of its kind for Europe, well before the likes of FedEx, DHL and other well-known brands.  Clive had an incredible vision of creating a truly independent logistics company and he went on to build a close-knit organisation, with big dreams. 

Seabourne rapidly expanded, building depots across Europe, and earned the prestigious Queens Award for Industry in the UK on two occasions.

In the 1980s, Seabourne acquired a freight company, closely followed by an international express courier operator, greatly expanding the range of services provided. The following decade, Seabourne sold Seabourne Express Parcels, allowing them to dedicate themselves to freight and express courier operations.

The many acquisitions that followed enabled Seabourne to provide high levels of service and experience across the globe, in all areas of distribution. In 2008, Seabourne made the acquisition of Air Action Group, providing comprehensive and reliable service on road, sea and air freight, as well as courier and mail fulfilment. In the following year, Seabourne acquired leading South African business Inxpress which enabled their expansion into the growing South African market.

The acquisition of UK based Gazelle Couriers highlighted two revenue streams including same-day courier and 3PL services, this acquisition was critical to Seabourne’s objective of providing a broad range of services in order to meet all of our customers’ needs.