Waitrose & Partners news

We spoke to Rob Thompson, head of supply chain development at Waitrose, about his thoughts on the state of the food and grocery supply chain. Rob is speaking at IGD’s Supply Chain Summit in November, sharing how Waitrose is dealing with increased complexity, building capacity and changing order and forecast models. Here we share some of his views on… …His role I’m head of supply chain...

Waitrose has announced plans to develop its Click & Collect service, by launching a trial of automated, temperature-controlled lockers. 10 trial locations The new lockers have been trialled over the past year at the retailer’s head office in Bracknell and will be rolled out to a further 10 locations. The trial locations include; Green Park Business Park in Reading, Gatwick North and South Ter...

Waitrose’s new national distribution centre (NDC) at Milton Keynes is on course to break the record build time of just 22 weeks. The NDC is a major part of the retailer’s plans to expand its business across the UK. Major retail network The retailer’s new 87,000 sq.m facility is expected to be finished by early November and is to break the record build time for a building of this size. Constru...

A cross-company mentoring initiative, part of IGD Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) UK, has won an award at the ECR Europe Forum. Best Activation Award The scheme, which won the Best Activation Award for the best implementation of a collaborative business programme, was headed by co-chairs Sue McGeorge, Diageo GB supply chain director and David Jones, Waitrose supply chain director as part ...

Waitrose has announced that it is to open its first national distribution centre (NDC) in 2015. Supply chain simplification The NDC, which will be over 90,000sq m, will handle the distribution of around 25,000 nationally available lines available in Waitrose stores and online. It will simplify Waitrose's supply chain and cut the number of stock transfers between its regional distribution cent...

John Lewis and Waitrose will modernise its inventory and customer systems in a four-year project with Oracle, according to The Register. 50 legacy systems to be replaced John Lewis plan to replace approximately 50 legacy systems currently operational in both John Lewis and Waitrose with Oracle’s ERP system. The IT implementation is part of a wider business transformation project and is ...

Waitrose has announced that it will open its second e-commerce grocery depot in Coulsdon, South London, which will more than double its online capacity in London. 50% more deliveries The Coulsdon facility will open in the Autumn of 2014 and builds on Waitrose’ current network which fulfils orders though picking at local stores and its dark store in Acton. It will feature 7,500 sqm of picking ...

UK retailer, Waitrose, is to look at GPS technology to enable it to prepare online orders just before a customer arrives, according to press reports. Just-in-time preparation The service would run through a position tracking smart-phone app and recognise when the customer is approaching the store. Staff would be notified and then begin preparing the order in time for the customers arrival. Th...

Waitrose has opened its new distribution centre (DC) in Leyland, UK, and has began making deliveries, according to press reports. Northern expansion The new 33,450 sq m distribution centre in Leyland, Lancashire, has opened and will service Waitrose's stores in the north of England as well as assisting with its planned store expansion in the north of England and Scotland. It was due t...

Waitrose has announced its intention to launch temperature controlled collection lockers enabling customers to collect their orders at their own convenience. Building on online growth This initiative is the latest move by Waitrose to build on the 50.1% growth the retailer is seeing in its online business. The lockers are able to store orders at ambient, chilled and frozen temperatures and wil...