Wincanton wins transformational eCommerce opportunity with Waitrose

Published by

Nicky Godding

Chippenham-headquartered logistics company Wincanton has been chosen by Waitrose to create a Customer Fulfilment Centre for Waitrose.com online grocery home deliveries – a ‘first’ for the third-party logistics market.

As part of an initial five-year contract, Wincanton will develop and operate the CFC in West London, accelerating Waitrose & Partners’ expansion in online grocery home delivery. The partnership approach with the Waitrose team will accelerate the implementation, ensuring the CFC is fully operational in the current financial year.

The new contract will build on Wincanton’s long-standing operations for Waitrose’s supermarkets, and the Group’s expertise in home delivery, eFulfilment and food logistics. Wincanton will be responsible for operating the CFC (or ‘dark store’) and delivery to Waitrose customers in the West London area

This transformational new contract positions Wincanton as a leader in a market currently experiencing exponential growth. Furthermore, it will involve the creation of 800 jobs and will offer Waitrose.com customers an additional 25,000 orders per week.

James Wroath, CEO at Wincanton, said: "This partnership with Waitrose to deliver groceries to customers’ homes is a fantastic opportunity for us to combine our existing capabilities in a new way, in order to accelerate Waitrose & Partners’ online growth. We will be the first third party logistics operator to enter an exciting and rapidly expanding market."

Andrew Murphy, John Lewis Partnership Executive Director, Operations, addedd: "This builds on a 20-year relationship with Wincanton from which we know them to be a collaborative and agile business partner. Our companies' complementary experience will help us further accelerate our online growth and respond well to significant customer demand."

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.