About Us

What we do

Apex Insight publishes analysis of and provides bespoke consulting services to clients involved in the online retail value chain, which stretches from consumer credit and payment methods through to parcels services and last mile delivery.

We provide fact-based consulting work to a range of clients including corporates and private equity firms in our market areas. We have particular experience in commercial due diligence.

We also publish a series of market reports on these sectors which are designed to provide, in a concise format, the information that senior-level buyers typically seek:

• insight into the market including critical success factors, structural attractiveness and the main trends

• credible and evidenced estimates of market size, historical growth and forecasts which are based on the right set of drivers and an understanding of trends and their impact

• identification of the main companies active in the market and analysis of their offerings, positioning and performance

Custom research services probe market niches, specific issues, or individual companies more deeply, or explore other sectors not covered by our published reports.

People

Frank Proud

Frank founded Apex Insight in 2012. He has worked across many sectors but has particular experience in transport and logistics. He has advised a range of leading organisations including the Royal Mail, FedEx and UPS, the BBC, Endemol, MITIE, Dixons Carphone and the FCA. He has also led buy- and sell-side commercial due diligence assignments for private equity firms including Sovereign Capital, Livingbridge, NVM, GMT, Root Capital, 3i and LDC.

Frank started his career in strategy consulting, working with two firms, Bridgewater and Burlington, which were originally founded by ex-Bain teams. Subsequently, he was a senior member of the Transaction Support team at EY, advising private equity firms and corporate acquirers on commercial due diligence and other acquisition-related issues. He has an MA in Economics from Cambridge University. Outside work he is a keen long-distance and adventure cyclist.

Julian Rose

Julian is a specialist in the regulation of asset finance markets including business leasing and consumer credit. He is the founding director of Asset Finance Policy.

From 2008 to 2014 Julian was Head of Asset Finance at the Finance & Leasing Association. His previous experience spans regulation with the Financial Reporting Council and Competition Commission (now the Competition and Markets Authority), management consulting with PwC and KPMG, and industry with NCR and UPS.

He is a Chartered Management Accountant and has Masters Degrees in Management from Boston University and Competition and Regulation from the University of East Anglia.

Feedback from clients

At Apex Insight, we enjoy speaking to clients who use our reports. Anyone who buys from us is entitled to have a conference call to discuss the report and ask any questions they have arising from, or as a result of, it. We also carry out regular customer satisfaction research to see what clients think of our work, how we can improve it and what new areas they would like us to cover.

In our most recent exercise we approached all clients who had purchased a report from us in the last year for their input. We managed to speak to 30 and asked them a range of questions including how they scored our reports, from 1-5, for quality and value for money. The charts show the scores we received with the overwhelming majority scoring us either 4 or 5 out of 5 on both measures.



While we are very pleased that these scores remained high, as they have been in previous years, we were also grateful for the input from those clients who identified areas where our reports can improve further. We are now working on incorporating these suggestions into our forthcoming reports.

We realise that it can be difficult for new clients to buy from a research provider for the first time. To give a degree of comfort, several clients have given us testimonials that they are happy for us to reproduce on our website. To provide more detail, here is a wider selection of client comments answering, in their own words, two questions: ‘How useful was the report to you?’ and ‘How does the Apex Insight report compare to those from other research providers?’

Names, companies and report titles have been witheld to preserve confidentiality.

‘How useful was the report to you?’

“It was invaluable because we came to the UK and wanted something to teach us how this market works here. And we needed to raise funding. Our investors needed a credible analysis of the market. Using your report we were able to get our funding: £2m” – New market entrant

“I feel Apex Insight reports are written by someone who is familiar with the market, that people in the marketplace are comfortable with what Apex writes, and the banks trust the numbers. I was comfortable presenting the information to our Board” – Corporate

“This is one of our strategic markets and we have many years of experience of it. We found the Apex Insight report very useful. All the areas we wanted were covered well, in particular the analysis of what is a complex value chain. It was more complete in this regard than other sources” – Corporate

“It is comprehensive and does what it says on the tin! A lot of it is based on publicly available information, but it would take me ages to put together if I did it. I think it is comprehensive” – Corporate

“We have been using the Apex Insight reports a lot over the last few months… comprehensive and provide key information, covering the market from different angles: the macro- economic view, market drivers, operating models and so on. There was information on how the numbers were calculated which gives confidence. Our new CEO came from outside this industry and he found the report useful” – Corporate

“It is really useful. The methodology is good: the logical path it takes you through from volume to value and product type. The graphs are good visuals, good comparisons of service offering, and the market trend part was also good” – Corporate

“It’s been useful. It’s the main report I use. I look at it 2-3 times a year. It gives us a bigger-picture view which we then can add to with the more detailed view we have of the market” – Corporate

“The report was very useful and gave good insights and was a good introduction to the sector. It was clear and easy to use. The forecasts were sensible and the industry experts quotes throughout were also good” – Strategy consulting firm

‘How does the Apex Insight report compare to those from other research providers?’

“It was the best report I read on this market… nobody questioned your figures” – Government

“As a company we buy a lot of different research. Overall, I think this Apex Insight one is the best I have seen. It is UK-specific, which is relevant for me, and it delivered everything I was looking for: sensible market figures and insights into competitors, their performance and their current contracts” – Corporate

“We commissioned someone to go out and see what is available on the market and were told that this report by Apex Insight was the best one.” – Public service body

“I have bought 3 or 4 reports from Apex Insight, and once I read them I knew this was the place to go and I don’t need to look elsewhere” – Investor

“It was the first time I had seen firm-ish statistics on our market as there isn’t a great deal out there. I have looked at quite a lot of other reports but they are not at this level. The Apex Insight one is ‘on the money’, it has granularity … I intend to buy the 2017 edition when it comes out.” – Corporate

“We have bought Apex Insight and another report because they cover different things…I would not say that one was better than the other. The Apex one is more of a market insight and the other one is more of a consumer insight” – Corporate

“It was well thought out, accurate and thorough. In the past we have used other sources, but the Apex Insight one is better” – Investor

“It gives a comprehensive overview of the market with good primary data, country-specific stats and breakdowns and detail on the leading players. The Apex Insight report gives recent data, ie figures from 2016, while many other reports give old stats from previous years. Also the Apex Insight one is a bit more granular and has more colour. It is all good, we are still using it” – Investment bank