Tesco has announced plans to open a new warehouse, dedicated to dealing exclusively with online grocery orders. The retail giant has experienced increasing volumes of consumers wishing to shop online in the south-east of England and London, and the new facility at Croydon is expected to complement the in-store picking operation, which Tesco regards as being “the foundation of our home shopping success.”
Tesco has traditionally carried out internet orders from its existing stores and the change brings them more in line with Ocado, the Waitrose provider. Ocado is the internet food company that sells Waitrose products and has only ever delivered food straight through a dedicated warehouse network.
Tesco has bought a warehouse by the M25 that will service the London area in a one-stop shop solution for internet orders. It expects there to be around 440 staff employed at the site which they describe as a “Dot Com facility”. The project which is planning to be finished by the middle of next year is expected to cost more than £10M.
The supermarket giant currently delivers 170,000 orders per week and covers 97% of the country.
A Tesco spokesperson comments: “More and more customers recognise the convenience of having their shopping delivered to their home. This outstanding growth means that we have to plan ahead to ensure that we continue to serve our customers well and develop the service further.”
