July 2002

Sainsbury's is to discontinue the dedicated home delivery picking operation it runs in a 6,500 sq m facility at Gorton in Manchester, and replace it with store-picking from three refurbished stores in the region.

It will however retain the bigger dedicated home delivery picking centre at Park Royal in west London, which serves a larger area with a higher customer density. It now claims a 36 per cent share of the grocery home delivery market in the London area.

Elsewhere in the country, the company has always relied on store-picking for its Sainsbury's to You business. It added 20 stores to the network in its latest financial year, bringing the total to 53 stores.

In its latest annual report, the company says it reduced new customer acquisition costs by 60 per cent and fulfilment costs by 30 per cent in the second half of the year. It attributes the improvements both to improved volumes and to "better integration of our home delivery service into stores".

The company says its home delivery business will be profitable in the second half of the year 2003­2004.