Waitrose has officially opened its new Customer Fulfilment Centre (CFC) in Greenford, West London, to help meet surging demand for online grocery shopping.
When fully running later this year the centre will deliver 25,000 online orders each week, helping the retailer offer five times more online slots each week in London than before the pandemic.
The centre is the third CFC Waitrose now operates in London. Existing sites are located in Coulsdon and Enfield, while Waitrose uses its network of stores to cover 90% of postcodes across the rest of the UK.
The new CFC is the retailer’s first operated in partnership with supply chain firm Wincanton, which has a 20-year relationship with Waitrose, supplying wines and spirits to shops. Waitrose stated that by opening the site with Wincanton it was able to fast-track its development and respond to the continuing demand for online shopping slots.
Says Laura Burbedge, Waitrose.com Director, 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’s CEO, 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 … 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.”
NAM implications:
- Scope for online to move onwards from 20% of Waitrose sales.
- Time for some what-ifs by NAMs to avoid future surprises?
