​Waitrose & Partners announces new Customer Fulfilment Centre in Enfield

Friday 24 MAy 2019

Waitrose & Partners announces new Customer Fulfilment Centre in Enfield to support online growth 

• Creation of hundreds of new jobs when fully operational
• Five-acre site in Enfield due to open in Spring 2020

Waitrose & Partners has acquired a 110,000 sq ft property in Enfield, North London that will open as a dedicated fulfilment centre for online customer orders in spring next year.

The announcement is the third in a series of big moves by the retailer to treble Waitrose.com to a £1bn business within three years: last week it signed an outline agreement with Today Development Partners to develop three further Customer Fulfilment Centres with state-of-the-art technology; and in the same week created the role of Digital Director, moving Retail Director Ben Stimson into the new role to accelerate online growth and operations.

Across the UK, Waitrose.com deliveries are picked and packed by Partners in a customer’s local shop. This means 81% of active UK postcodes can be reached, and offers significant capacity for further growth in the retailer’s online model. The combination of a dedicated centre working alongside shops has already proved a success in South London with a centre in Coulsdon, opened in 2015.

Both models are run by Partners, meaning a personalised service for customers. The full range of up to 27K branded and own label products is available, with delivery in one-hour slots and free for all orders over £60.

The Enfield centre is the next stage of online investment that has seen the retailer inject more than £80m into Waitrose.com over the last five years. This has been across the entire service, from digital platform and new apps, to delivery performance and doorstep service.

Says Digital Director Ben Stimson: ‘Waitrose.com growth is rapid and we know there are many more new customers who would like to buy our products from us online. This centre is the latest in an exciting raft of investments and will ensure they have a really convenient, easy way to do so.’

In addition to investment in its Waitrose.com service, Waitrose & Partners has been investing in innovative ways to reach more customers online - including a trial in London called While You’re Away5,  to deliver groceries to customers’ homes and put them away while they are not at home, and Rapid Delivery6, to deliver within two hours of ordering

• Waitrose.com sales for the Full Year 2018/19 were up by 14%, compared to online grocery market growth of 3.2% (Kantar data, 52 weeks to 27 Jan 2019.

• Waitrose.com delivery service was launched in 2000 and now delivers directly to 81% of active UK postcodes. The service is provided through a combination of from-branch deliveries, and through the Coulsdon centre, opened in 2015.

• Customer satisfaction with Waitrose.com increased during the year ended 27 January 2019: fulfilment up by 5% and website functionality by 6% compared to 2017/18. This builds on increases of 6% and 5% (respectively) in the previous year, 2016/17.

• As well as online, Waitrose & Partners products are sold in its 349 shops, selected Shell garage forecourts and in 27 Welcome Break franchises.
• While You're Away - order numbers are growing by 10% each week, with new trial customers being currently added to the group and some customers placing two orders a week.

• Rapid - more than 200 deliveries a week are now made through the trial, with orders growing weekly by 20% on average since starting the trial in September last year. The addition of Sushi Daily to the service means customers can now choose made-to-order sushi with same-day delivery.

Waitrose & Partners

Waitrose & Partners has 349 shops in England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands, including 61 convenience branches, and another 27 shops at Welcome Break locations. It combines the convenience of a supermarket with the expertise and service of a specialist shop - dedicated to offering quality food that has been responsibly sourced, combined with high standards of customer service. Waitrose & Partners is an employee-owned business - all employees are Partners and have a say in how the business is run.

Waitrose & Partners exports products to more than 50 countries worldwide and has nine shops which operate under licence in the Middle East. The retailer's omnichannel business includes the online grocery service, Waitrose.com, as well as specialist online shops including waitrosecellar.com for wine and waitroseflorist.com for plants and flowers.