New Waitrose.com centre will mean 25,000 more online deliveries each week for London shoppers
Thursday 4 March 2021
- Creation of 800 new jobs when fully running
Waitrose is today opening a new Customer Fulfilment Centre in Greenford, West London. When fully running later this year the centre will deliver 25,000 Waitrose.com orders each week, helping to offer five times more online slots each week in London than before the pandemic. Staff at the centre will pick and pack 1.25 million products a week, delivered in 150 new vans.
The centre is the third Waitrose Customer Fulfilment Centre (also known as a ‘dark store’). Existing sites in Coulsdon and Enfield help to meet high demand in London, while a network of Waitrose shops cover 90% of postcodes across the rest of the UK. But the centre is the first of its kind in that it’s being opened and operated with supply chain partner Wincanton plc, which has a 20 year relationship with Waitrose, supplying wines and spirits to shops.
Opening with Wincanton as its supply chain partner also means Waitrose could fast-track the centre and respond to continuing demand for online shopping slots - especially from elderly, disabled and vulnerable customers.
Waitrose OnePoll research from the 2021 Waitrose Food & Drink Report finds that a quarter of UK adults bought food online for the first time last year with over three-quarters of people in the UK now doing at least some of our grocery shopping online, compared to 61% in 2019. And 69% of people who shopped for food online during the pandemic plan to continue doing so.
The centre is opening with FareShare as a partner, meaning surplus food will be put to good use. Waitrose has donated the equivalent of over 4 million meals to FareShare since starting work with them in 2017.
Says Laura Burbedge, Waitrose.com Director: “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 CEO: “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.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
- Waitrose.com delivers to 90% of postcodes across the country via a network of shops and (now) three fulfilment centres in London
- Waitrose has been prioritising elderly, disabled and vulnerable customers throughout the pandemic for online delivery slots, including via the Government lists of clinically vulnerable people
Wincanton plc
Wincanton is a leading supply chain partner, providing solutions to some of the world’s most admired brands across a wide range of industries including retail, construction, defence and energy.
As a trusted and respected business partner, we design and implement services and solutions that range from setting up and operating distribution networks through to bonded warehouses, technology hosting, container transport and storage. We strive for operational excellence in everything we do.
We work hard to understand and respond to our customers’ needs, build long term relationships and use our skills and expertise to deliver a smarter, added value service, every day. Our customers rely on us to make their businesses operate more efficiently and to gain a competitive advantage in their sector.
Improved stock visibility and availability, reduction of lead times, collaborative warehousing and transport models, and an absolute commitment to continuous improvement, are just some of the reasons why many of our customer relationships extend to more than 20 years.
Key facts:
- Annual revenue in the UK & Ireland exceeds £1.2 billion
- 19,100 colleagues including 5,500+ drivers
- Operates from 200+ locations with 14 million square feet of warehousing across the UK and Ireland
- Operating responsibility for around 3,500 vehicles
About the John Lewis Partnership
The John Lewis Partnership owns and operates two of Britain's best-loved retail brands - John Lewis and Waitrose. Started as a radical idea nearly a century ago, the Partnership is the largest employee-owned business in the UK and amongst the largest in the world, with over 78,000 employees who are all Partners in the business. For all intents and purposes, the Partnership is a social enterprise; the profits made are reinvested into the business - for customers and Partners. John Lewis operates 42 shops plus one outlet across the UK as well as johnlewis.com. Waitrose has 331 shops in England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands, including 59 convenience branches, and another 27 shops at Welcome Break locations. 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.