Marks and Spencer boosts online capacity with new automated warehouse
M&S is building an automated online warehouse within its Bradford distribution centre as part of the retailer’s Never the Same Again programme.
This will line up alongside a Castle Donington online facility (which opened in 2012) and in-store pick model.
The investment in Bradford follows a trial over Christmas where colleagues manually picked product from the existing automated distribution centre to service online orders. At its peak, the site was dispatching 14,000 items a day.
The build is now underway with the aim to be operational for Christmas 2021.
The team will start with the target of dispatching 35,000 items a day, looking to increase capacity over time.
Bradford will cover boxed products (from bras to belts) and the aim is for it to eventually support around 20% of M&S online orders.
Stephen Langford, Director at M&S.com, says: “We’re transforming our clothing business to be more relevant, more often for our 22 million customers – however they choose to shop.”
“Whilst it’s exciting our stores have reopened, growing our online business has never been more important and part of that is a behind the scenes network which means we can serve our customers as efficiently as possible.”
“Building Bradford is a key way we’re setting ourselves up for a more digital future at M&S under the banner of MS2.”
