Friday 13 November 2015 4:35 pm

Amazon launches Pantry as it seeks a bigger slice of UK grocery market

A week after it launched its first physical bookshop, Amazon is taking its retro approach further with the opening of its 'Pantry' service in the UK tomorrow.

In a bid to take home a bigger slice of the £177.5bn UK grocery market, Pantry will offer Amazon Prime customers next-day delivery on over 4,000 "everyday essentials", including major food and drink brands, household supplies, child and pet care, and health and beauty.

Available only to Prime members, Amazon Pantry can be viewed as the cornershop to its bigger brother Amazon Fresh, currently only available in the US, which offers 20,000 chilled, frozen and perishable products as well as local produce.

Amazon Pantry manager at Amazon UK, Helene Parthenay, said: "Amazon Pantry has been designed to take the heavy lifting out of replenishing the often bulky basics and store cupboard essentials that people need every day."

The online retailer recently expanded its UK Prime Now service which delivers chilled and frozen foods to customers in London and Birmingham and has announced plans to roll out the service to more UK postcodes in the coming months.

The move is another sign the UK online grocery market is poised for growth with retail experts IGD projecting it will double to £17.2bn in the next five years.

David Gray, retail analyst at Planet Retail, said: "Amazon has traditionally beaten its competitors on speed. But Tesco and other competitors are getting faster so the race is on.

"The modest distribution costs make it a logical move for Amazon as shipping groceries with long shelf-lives only requires you to put them in a box, like so many of their other products."

Retail analysts suggest the timing indicates the US-only Amazon Fresh service may launch in the UK next year.

However Gray said: "The step to Amazon Fresh would require a whole set of much more complex and costly distribution infrastructure.

"There's a lot of loyalty from consumers in the fresh food market which could be a barrier to them in the UK."

But a spokesperson for Amazon said: "We've never made any announcements about Amazon Fresh in the UK and nor would I wish to comment on rumour and speculation."