Cook has bought a van to trial its own home delivery service.

The upmarket frozen food retailer has deployed a Megavan - featuring the strapline ‘Rejoice! Cook delivers’ - at its Clapham store. The service offers customers in neighbouring postcodes the opportunity to order online or by phone and have orders over £30 delivered free of charge.

Cook said if the van proved successful in Clapham, vans could be bought for other company-owned shops.

“It is really a test of whether the future of our retail proposition is shop plus local van delivery,” said a Cook spokesman.

In Clapham, the van was a way of making life easier for busy shoppers and extending the geographical reach of the store, he added.

A few Cook franchises already offer a local delivery service, with notable success in Taunton and Wells, but Clapham is the first company-owned store to do local deliveries.

Cook also has a national home delivery service, which is served from its logistics centre in Kent and operated by a third-party courier. The national service is subject to charges that vary according to the distance from the Kent depot.