📋 Tender Overview
Creation of 800 new jobs when fully runningWaitrose is opening a new Customer Fulfilment Centre in Greenford West London. When fully running later this year the centre will deliver 25000 Waitrose.com orders each week helping to offer five times more online slots each week in London than before the pandemic. Staff at the centre will pick and pack 1.25 million products a week delivered in 150 new vans.The centre is the third Waitrose Customer Fulfilment Centre also known as a dark store. Existing sites in Coulsdon and Enfield help to meet high demand in London while a network of Waitrose shops cover 90 of postcodes across the rest of the UK. But the centre is the first of its kind in that its being opened and operated with supply chain partner Wincanton plc which has a 20 year relationship with Waitrose supplying wines and spirits to shops.Opening with Wincanton as its supply chain partner also means Waitrose could fast-track the centre and respond to continuing demand for online shopping slots - especially from elderly disabled and vulnerable customers.Waitrose OnePoll research from the 2021 Waitrose Food Drink Report finds that a quarter of UK adults bought food online for the first time last year with over three-quarters of people in the UK now doing at least some of our grocery shopping online compared to 61 in 2019. And 69 of people who shopped for food online during the pandemic plan to continue doing so.The centre is opening with FareShare as a partner meaning surplus food will be put to good use. Waitrose has donated the equivalent of over 4 million meals to FareShare since starting work with them in 2017.Says Laura Burbedge Waitrose.com Director Waitrose.com now accounts for a fifth of our total business compared to six percent 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 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 Wincanton. We look forward to providing Waitrose.com customers in London with the highest levels of service. 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.NOTES TO EDITORSWaitrose.com delivers to 90 of postcodes across the country via a network of shops and now three fulfilment centres in LondonWaitrose has been prioritising elderly disabled and vulnerable customers throughout the pandemic for online delivery slots including via the Government lists of clinically vulnerable peopleWINCANTON PLCWincanton is a leading supply chain partner providing solutions to some of the worlds most admired brands across a wide range of industries including retail construction defence and energy.As a trusted and respected business partner we design and implement services and solutions that range from setting up and operating distribution networks through to bonded warehouses technology hosting container transport and storage. We strive for operational excellence in everything we do.We work hard to understand and respond to our customers needs build long term relationships and use our skills and expertise to deliver a smarter added value service every day. Our customers rely on us to make their businesses operate more efficiently and to gain a competitive advantage in their sector.Improved stock visibility and availability reduction of lead times collaborative warehousing and transport models and an absolute commitment to continuous improvement are just some of the reasons why many of our customer relationships extend to more than 20 years.Key factsAnnual revenue in the UK Ireland exceeds 1.2 billion19100 colleagues including 5500 drivers Operates from 200 locations with 14 million square feet of warehousing across the UK and IrelandOperating responsibility for around 3500 vehicleswww.wincanton.co.uk
