Waitrose plans to open a second London warehouse for its food delivery service after a hike in sales.
The ‘dark’ store - so named because they are laid out similar to stores but only service delivery vans - will open in the second half of next year. It will more than double the capacity of Waitrose’s London food delivery business, the supermarket said.
Waitrose said delivery sales increased 40.6 per cent in the first half of its financial year to July 27 as it continued to invest in the capacity of stores to fulfil orders. Waitrose, owned by the John Lewis Partnership, said the investment has meant a 40 per cent increase in online delivery time slots available to customers nationwide.
The growth figures coincide with a report from the IGD predicting the online market will grow 123.7 per cent in the next five years from £6.5 billion to April this year, reaching £14.6 billion in 2018.
It said that would make it similar in size to the discount grocery market which it forecast would grow from £9.5 billion to £18.6 billion. The IGD said the total grocery market would grow 21.3 per cent in the same period, from £169.7 billion to £205.9 billion with superstores and hypermarkets accounting for just £6 billion of the growth.
Waitrose said total sales in the six months to July grew 8 per cent to £2.85 billion with operating profit rising 12.8 per cent to £160.2 million.
The John Lewis department store, the other half of the John Lewis Partnership, said online sales increased 17.1 per cent in the period. John Lewis said earlier this year that online sales - including VAT - exceeded £1 billion on a rolling 52-week basis. Although that means the figure would be nearer £800 million using standard reporting methods.
Total UK sales at John Lewis and Waitrose are expected to exceed £9 billion this year. Reports last weekend suggested that could mean it comes close to or exceeds the UK sales of its main rival Marks & Spencer.
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