Waitrose is set to open a multi million pound e-commerce grocery depot in Coulsdon, South London, which will more than double the number of online delivery slots available in the capital.
The new site will create 500 jobs and is expected to open in Autumn 2014.
It will be laid out as a dark store, with a self-contained chilled picking room to reduce refrigeration costs.
The six acre site will feature an 80,000 sq ft picking space – twice the size of the existing site at Acton – and allow up to 50 per cent more items to be picked per hour and up to 50 per cent more drops per van to be made per week.
Shoppers in the capital whose orders are fulfilled by the Coulsdon site will be able to choose from one-hour delivery slots between 6am and midnight and continue to get free delivery on orders over £50.
Waitrose currently fulfils its online orders through a network of London branches and the dark store online fulfilment centre in Acton, West London.
Waitrose retail director Rob Collins said: “Demand from Waitrose.com shoppers in the capital has soared over the last year. Our dot-com fulfilment centre in Acton will reach capacity in 2014, and we have been looking for the right location for a second for some time.
“The DFC in Coulsdon provides the perfect, purpose-built site for us to take what we have learnt from Acton and step our online operation up a gear.
“We’re very excited to build on our history in Coulsdon by creating new jobs at a multi million pound depot which represents one of the changing faces of food shopping.”
