Deliveroo has launched two new dark stores to serve its rapid grocery service Hop.
One of the delivery-only sites, in Acton, has launched in partnership with Waitrose. The other, in Norbury, has launched with Morrisons.
Hop promises customers a selection of around 1,500 SKUs delivered “in a matter of minutes”.
“It’s fast…like really fast,” Deliveroo has told customers.
The new sites represent the second to be supplied by Waitrose, following the launch of a site in Bermondsey a year ago. It is the ninth to be launched with Morrisons, which partnered with the courier business for the first Hop site in Vauxhall in September 2021.
The Waitrose Acton Hop will offer around 1,300 SKUs and the Morrisons Norbury Hop around 1,600.
“It’s fantastic to be rolling out our Hop service in further prime locations across the capital, bringing greater choice, flexibility and selection to even more customers and building on our existing partnerships with major grocery brands,” said Carlo Mocci, chief business officer UK&I at Deliveroo.
“We started out in London, and are always looking for ways to make the lives of busy Londoners easier – our two new Hops reflect the strong demand we’ve seen for delivery of household staples and dinner-time favourites to your door in minutes,” he added.
Deliveroo launched Hop to compete with spate of rapid delivery grocery players like Getir and Gopuff, which were fast expanding across London and beyond.
The speed of delivery – typically under 10 minutes – offered by those on-demand grocery players had left Deliveroo’s grocery offering – with delivery times of 35 minutes or less – looking sluggish in comparison.
While many of the initial influx of rapid grocers have now ceased operations or consolidated, Deliveroo has continued to expand Hop, and rolled it out to Milan, Paris, Hong Kong and Dubai.
Late last year, the company opened a store on New Oxford Street that allows customers to shop by ordering on digital kiosks or the Deliveroo app, for near-immediate collection. The store also functions as a dark store for Hop, with 19 dedicated site staff fulfilling orders to be delivered by couriers to residents and offices in the local area.
Last summer, Deliveroo began offering HOP in an ‘as a service’ model which sees Deliveroo offering its expertise and technology to grocery partners to offer rapid delivery from their own existing retail sites.
“We want to give more and more people the opportunity to enjoy the excellent range of food and drink we offer,” said Barry Delehanty, director of commercial sales & convenience at Waitrose.
“The launch of our second Hop site, alongside our 222 shops that we offer the Deliveroo service from, ensures we are continuing to give more options in how and when people can shop with us whilst reaching new customers,” he added.
Paul Dobson, sales director – franchise & wholesale supply at Morrisons, said the Norbury site launch was “another key moment”.
No comments yet