PEP / PAXI
Moving a parcel channel to the cloud to maintain service during floods
Climate and nature-related brand risk: Flooding damaged distribution infrastructure, system outages, lost parcel visibility and interruption to customer transactionsÂ
Solution pathway: Cloud-native architecture, autoscaling, modular services and rapid digital business-continuity development
Business type: Large value retailer and store-based parcel-network operatorÂ
Sector: Value retail, e-commerce support and parcel delivery
Geography: South Africa
In practice
The original system was built on-premises as a single, monolithic application. As parcel volumes increased, capacity and reliability became constraints. A failure in the central system could affect transactions and visibility across the wider network.
PEP rebuilt PAXI using cloud-native services on Google Cloud. The architecture uses modular services and automatic scaling, allowing computing capacity to expand as volumes rise and reducing dependence on a single on-premises system.
This capability was tested when catastrophic flooding struck Durban in April 2022. The floods damaged transport and business infrastructure, including a major PEP distribution facility. According to the published case study, the cloud platform allowed the technology team to build a continuity solution within two days.
PEP estimated that this intervention avoided the loss of approximately three months of income from one revenue stream —nearly R3 million— and the platform achieved near-zero downtime during its first year on the new architecture.
The example shows how physical and digital channels are connected. A resilient store network is not enough if the central system required to register, route and track parcels becomes unavailable. Conversely, adaptable digital infrastructure can help the company reconfigure operations when a physical location is disrupted.
Why this example was selected
This case study was curated because Google Cloud published the implementation with quantified outcomes, including the two-day continuity response, near-zero downtime and estimated revenue protected during the Durban flooding.
Independent reporting on Pepkor’s results confirms the severity of the event, including damage to a distribution centre representing a substantial share of PEP’s capacity. The case is especially valuable as an African retail example connecting cloud resilience with a real climate-related disruption.
