Irish online retailer, Buy4Now, has acquired the assets of ITS Logistics for €600,000 in a cash and shares transaction. It has set up a subsidiary company, Buy4Now Logistics, to manage and co-ordinate the majority of the company's food and non-food deliveries.

The new company will be solely focused on deliveries, with 19 vehicles covering Dublin, Wicklow, Kildare and Meath. Buy4Now Logistics works with SDS to cover the rest of the State.

While the operation will focus primarily on internet deliveries, non-internet deliveries will also form part of the offer, it said. It has already signed a deal with florist, Sheila's Flowers, which has given the company the business for all of its deliveries, providing orders for 15,000 deliveries annually.

Chief executive of Buy4Now, Mr Ali Murdoch, described the acquisition of ITS as fundamental to the future growth of the company. "E-tailers will stand or fall on their ability to provide a quality shopping experience - where customer service, including the transit of goods, is equal to or better than the service customers receive in a bricks-and-mortar store. Feedback suggests that what customers are most worried about is the quality of goods purchased and, importantly, the timeliness of delivery," said Mr Murdoch.

Buy4Now Logistics will be headed by Buy4Now's current operations director Mr Steve Cullen. Mr Vincent Touhy, managing director of ITS, will join the subsidiary board as a non-executive director. Buy4Now said it would shortly announce its first profitable quarter.