Waitrose has announced plans to treble the size of its online grocery operation into a £1bn business over the next three years.
The retailer will team up with Today Development Partners to build new state of the art automated delivery warehouses (dubbed Customer Fulfilment Centres) after losing its Ocado partnership to Marks & Spencer in February.
Waitrose stated the new partnership will create a significant increase in capacity and automation, as well as a “rapid step change” in its online and digital capabilities.
Today Development Partners was founded by Ocado co-founder Jonathan Faiman.
Rob Collins, managing director of Waitrose & Partners, said: ‘Waitrose.com is a popular and efficient home delivery service that is already growing strongly ahead of the market. The plans announced today represent a clear commitment to achieve rapid step-change in Waitrose.com’s capacity and capability as we build a modern, well-invested digital business that is fit for the future.
‘The development of our new Customer Fulfilment Centres will triple our delivery capacity, bringing our well-loved service and delicious food to more customers across the UK and setting Waitrose.com on the path to becoming a £1 billion turnover business.’
Jonathan Faiman, Co-founder and CEO of Today Development Partners said: “I am more excited about this new venture than anything I’ve done in my career. I am delighted and privileged to be back within the John Lewis Partnership family and we will deliver for Waitrose.com customers the world’s best digital home delivery service.”
Mo Gawdat, chief business officer of TDP and former chief business officer of Google X, the innovation arm of Google, added: “What we're aiming to build is the kind of platform that touches everyone's life. With the advancement in technology and with Waitrose.com as our partner we aim to make the experience of using this technology a great experience for the customer.”
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