Waitrose has opened a new online fulfilment centre in Greenford, West London, in partnership with Wincanton.
When the warehouse is fully operational, later this year, Waitrose says it will have boosted its online delivery capacity in London by 25,000 orders each week. That’s around 1.25 million products a week being delivered in 150 new vans.
London shoppers will have access to five times more online slots each week compared to before the pandemic. The opening will also, reportedly, create 800 new jobs.
Although this is Waitrose’s third such site in London (in addition to existing sites in Coulsdon and Enfield), it’s the first to be run in conjunction with supply chain partner Wincanton. A move which, Waitrose says, has helped it ‘fast-track’ the centre to meet the continuing demand for online shopping slots.
Indeed, according to Waitrose’s own OnePoll research from the 2021 Waitrose Food & Drink Reports, over three-quarters of people in the UK are now doing at least some of their grocery shopping online, compared to 61 per cent in 2019. While 69 per cent of people who shopped for food online during the pandemic plan to continue doing so.
Laura Burbedge, Waitrose.com director, said: “Waitrose.com now accounts for a fifth of our total business, compared to six per cent a year ago. But despite this huge growth we know there are still more people who would like to shop online with us – so this new centre is a significant step in our future plans.”
James Wroath, CEO of Wincanton, said: “As the first supply chain partner to create a dark store for grocery home deliveries in the UK, this is an exciting growth opportunity for Wincanton. We look forward to providing Waitrose.com customers in London with the highest levels of service. Dark stores will play a huge role in helping supply chains adapt to meet a new set of expectations as more retail purchases are made online and they will better enable businesses to serve customers, at scale.”
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