Aldi has extended its trial of grocery home deliveries in partnership with Deliveroo to London.
The discounter launched its first on-demand delivery service last month from its Daleside Road store in Nottingham. This has since rolled out to seven stores across the Midlands.
Customers near its Camden store in central London are now able to order from a selection around 200 essential products, which will be picked and packed by Aldi staff for delivery by Deliveroo’s network of riders in as little as 30 minutes. The service is available to addresses within around two miles of the Aldi Local outlet, including West Hampstead, Belsize Park and Mayfair.
Richard Thornton, communications director at Aldi, said: “In the three weeks since we launched our partnership with Deliveroo, feedback from customers has been very positive.
“Extending that partnership to around 100,000 people living near our Camden store will make it even easier for them to access great-quality, affordable food at Aldi’s unbeatable prices.”
Aldi stated that the service could be rolled out to more of its 875 stores in the UK by the end of this year.
The trial follows the discounter’s recent move into online food parcels, which were introduced in April to help self-isolating and vulnerable people during the coronavirus outbreak.
All the big four supermarket chains in the UK have been ramping-up their delivery operations to serve increased demand during the pandemic. However, up until April, Aldi only sold wine & spirits and its ‘Specialbuys’ range of non-food items online.
The discounters had steered clear of offering a grocery delivery service in the UK due to the high costs of servicing orders. However, the recent rise in third-party delivery firms could help Aldi and Lidl meet the growing demand for online grocery without the hefty investment in infrastructure or systems.
NAM Implications:
- This has to be just the beginning…
- Think 875 UK stores sooner rather than later.
- With rivals unlikely to watch from the side-lines…
- Time to avoid missing another Aldi opportunity?
