Waitrose opens third dark store amid online sales boom
Waitrose has opened a new customer fulfilment centre in Greenford, West London.
When fully running later in the year, this will deliver 25,000 weekly e-commerce orders, helping to offer five times more online slots each week in London than before the coronavirus pandemic.
Staff will pick and pack 1.25 million products a week, delivered in 150 new vans.
The centre is the retailer’s third CFC (also known as a dark store), sitting alongside Coulsdon and Enfield.
In a first for Waitrose, it is being opened and operated with supply chain partner Wincanton.
Laura Burbedge, Waitrose.com Director, says: “Waitrose.com now accounts for a fifth of our total business, compared to 6% 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, adds: “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 us.”
“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.”
