Waitrose vows to double London delivery slots with Enfield fulfilment centre opening

The grocery arm of the John Lewis Partnership is due to open its latest customer fulfilment centre in Enfield, north London, on Thursday and said it would allow for it to double the number of available online delivery slots for Londoners by September.

The retailer said the site would create 850 jobs in the local area when operating at full capacity and would add 13,000 weekly delivery slots.

Waitrose said that, since announcing its £100m online delivery expansion in February, it has increased delivery capacity by more than 50% and now services 120,000 customer orders per week.

The September deadline to have the new customer fulfilment centre fully operational coincides with the ending of Waitrose’s existing online grocery delivery partnership with Ocado. 

During the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Waitrose said it had been prioritising elderly and vulnerable shoppers, and noted that it had seen 35% of online orders being delivered to those shoppers identifying in that group.

The Enfield customer fulfilment centre will slot into Waitrose’s delivery network alongside its existing site at Coulsdon, in the south of the capital, and a wider network of 14 stores where online orders are currently being processed.

Waitrose.com director Ben Stimson said: “Before coronavirus, Waitrose.com was already going through a period of significant expansion, with investment across our infrastructure and website. Enfield was planned as a big part of our expansion plans – but in fact it is now also helping us respond as best we can to the huge demand for online slots – especially from our most vulnerable customers.

“One thing that recent weeks have highlighted to us is the importance of online retail to vulnerable people. Our shops have always been firmly rooted in their communities, but through these challenging times our partners working in shops and delivering grocery orders have been at the forefront of trying to respond to these needs in a way we couldn’t have imagined.

“We’re extremely proud of partners across the country and the vital role they’re carrying out.”