Waitrose opens new London warehouse in online delivery push
Waitrose has opened a new London warehouse in partnership with Wincanton in a bid to boost its online delivery capacity.
The supermarket, which last year ended its partnership with Ocado, said the warehouse in Greenford will deliver 25,000 orders each week and employ an extra 800 staff when it opens fully later this year.
That will allow the grocer to offer five times more online slots each week when compared to before the pandemic.
The new warehouse – or customer fulfilment centre – will be Waitrose’s third site, but the first that will be operated with supply chain partner Wincanton – a London listed logistics firm.
Laura Burbedge, director of Waitrose’s digital store, said: “Waitrose.com now accounts for a fifth of our total business, compared to six percent 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, Wincanton chief executive, added: “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.”