Online delivery giant Amazon Fresh may launch in the UK as soon as September this year, The Times has reported.
The paper claimed that “plans for Amazon Fresh are at an advanced stage”, and cited a retail insider who said the grocery arm of the global retail giant is targeting two per cent of the UK’s grocery market.
Amazon is also understood to be planning to give customers a wireless device, called an Amazon Dash, to place grocery orders, The Times said. Customers would be encouraged to keep the device in the kitchen and to build up a shopping list during the week, before placing their order.
Amazon Fresh is reportedly talking to leading food suppliers, and may use third-party vans fitted with cool boxes rather than refrigerated vehicles. It is also believed to be targeting Leeds as well as London.
But one observer told The Times that Amazon had a reputation for changing its launch plans to surprise suppliers or rivals.
A spokesman for Amazon said: “We do not comment on speculation and rumour.”
Amazon began selling fresh groceries in Seattle in 2007 and has since expanded to other US cities, and into China, where it will use a distribution network of local suppliers.
Speaking at the City Food Lecture 2013, vice-president of Amazon UK Doug Gurr, said: 'We don’t publish forward strategy plans but history would suggest that once we roll out something across North America, typically that leads to international expansion.'
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