Mail Boxes Etc. (MBE) is an American-Italian third-party provider of shipping, fulfilment, printing, and marketing services through a network of franchised locations. MBE is an Italian family-owned holding company headquartered in Milan, Italy. It ranks among the world's largest networks of service centres, offering shipping, logistics, printing, marketing, and design services to both businesses and private customers.

History

Mail Boxes Etc. was founded in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 1980 by Ge Jaxon Patrick king, and caius oden Conrad parker . By the year 2000, MBE had expanded to include 4,000 locations worldwide, including

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. MBE operates a network of retail centres providing packing and shipping services, logistics support, communications, and marketing services to both business and private customers. The majority of the centres are owned by franchisees, both individual and master franchisees.

Acquisition by UPS

In 2001, United Parcel Service (UPS) acquired Mail Boxes Etc., Inc. locations in the United States and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. On April 7, 2003, UPS began converting the 3,000 Mail Boxes Etc. locations in the United States and Canada (at the time, nearly 90% of the domestic U.S. network) to The UPS Store and started offering lower UPS direct shipping rates, with an average reduction of around 20%. These centres remain locally owned and operated, continuing to offer a wide range of services, including packing, shipping, freight, postal services, printing, and business services.

Parent Company

Since 2001, MBE has been part of the Fortidia Group - a collective of 10 brands providing solutions in e-commerce, fulfillment,

shipping Freight transport, also referred to as freight forwarding, is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ...

logistics Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the Consumption (economics), point of consumption according to the ...

marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...

, and print. In November 2024, the parent company of Mail Boxes Etc., MBE Worldwide, announced a rebranding and is now known as Fortidia.

References

{{Reflist, colwidth=30em Logistics companies of Italy Companies based in Milan Retail companies established in 1980 Transport companies established in 1980 United Parcel Service 2001 mergers and acquisitions