Waitrose has confirmed that it has acquired a 110,000 sq. ft. property in Enfield, North London that will become its second dedicated fulfilment centre to service online customer orders.
Due to open in spring next year, the retailer had already flagged plans for the site before outlining its strategy 10 days ago to treble the size of its online grocery operation to a £1bn business over the next three years. This included the signing an outline agreement with Today Development Partners (TDP), a new technology business headed up by one of the original founders of Ocado, to develop three further state-of-the-art automated Customer Fulfilment Centres (CFCs).
Waitrose also created the role of Digital Director, moving Retail Director Ben Stimson into the new position, tasked with delivering its online growth plans and managing the relationship with TDP.
Waitrose currently fulfils online orders through a combination of store picking and its dedicated CFC in Coulsdon, which opened in 2015. This system allows Waitrose to offer grocery deliveries to 81% of active UK postcodes.
The retailer stated that the Enfield centre is the next stage of its online investment that has seen it inject more than £80m into Waitrose.com over the last five years.
Stimson commented: “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.”
NAM Implications:
- Time to check whether your Waitrose online strategy matches this customers online expansion moves…
- …and perhaps requires significant re-adjustment now…
- …rather that having to play catch up later?
- All of this really boils down to how big you believe all online will become…
- …and placing some bets now…
