PUDO founder Coccia resigns from company

The Canadian courier and integrated express package distribution company PUDO Inc. today said its founder, president, and chief operating officer (COO), Frank Coccia, has resigned from the company.

The Toronto-based firm gave no reason for the move, but the change comes slightly more than a year after PUDO—an acronym for “pick-up and drop-off”—announced it had named outsider Elliott Etheredge as CEO, replacing Coccia in that position.

Since that time, PUDO’s finances have taken a hit, as it reported three consecutive quarters of slumping revenues and deepening net losses, including the first, second, and third quarters of 2024.

In the most recent earnings report, Etheredge cited the cause for those losses as “the negative impact of the large customer that changed their operating model earlier this year which continues to depress our quarter-over-quarter revenue.” But he said the company plans to continue its expansion plans, including a partnership deal with the mobile e-commerce platform Wish and a strategic expansion to the U.S. market. 

Founded in 2014, PUDO partners with retailers and logistics providers to offer a last-mile pick-up and returns network for e-commerce shoppers that reduces cost, increases convenience, and provides package security for the last-mile leg of package logistics, the firm says. The company does that with a courier service that serves a network of more than 1,500 storefront partners known as PUDOpoint Counters, located at independent businesses such as convenience stores, dry cleaners, and pharmacies.

"Over the last ten years, Frank and the team have built a solid platform to solve the complex logistical problem of e-commerce logistics,” Etheredge said in a release. “I am very encouraged by the recent progress we have made by expanding our network in the U.S. and adding an additional 290 PUDOpoints in Canada through our recent partnership with a very large Canadian office supply retailer.  While Frank will be missed, the Company is well positioned to capitalize on the opportunities in front of us."