Yodel boss hits back at claims of packages backlog

The UK's biggest parcel firm yesterday hit back at claims that it had a backlog of up to 750,000 undelivered gifts and said it had made 20 million deliveries in time for Christmas. Yodel, which counts Amazon among its major clients, sparked fury among some shoppers left without gifts in the run-up to Christmas – prompting hundreds to petition Amazon and demand it stop using the delivery firm. But Yodel chief executive Jonathan Smith denied there was a huge backlog of parcels and said the firm had "slightly less than 3,000" gifts to deliver out of five million parcels entrusted to it by retailers in the week before Christmas. Mr Smith said: "Some of them had the wrong address, and some of them the people weren't in."