Ocado is to develop a fourth hub in south-east London, as the popularity of online shopping continues to drive the need for more capacity.
The hub will allow it to deliver 200,000 more orders per week, it stated in its preliminary annual results to 30 November 2014 today. It is also considering splitting the site with its Morrisons.com business, which will allow it to share costs and capacity with Morrisons.
Development of the Erith hub is expected to begin in the first half of this year and Ocado plans to open the site in 2017.
A depot in Park Royal, west London, is also set to open this month and will replace a smaller location in White City. This follows the opening of additional delivery spokes in Ruislip, Enfield, Sheffield, Dagenham and Knowsley over the last 12 months, some of which are also shared with Morrisons.
Last summer Ocado revealed plans for a hub in Andover, Hampshire, which is to open later this year. It expects this site will give it the capacity for 65,000 more orders per week.
Chief executive Tim Steiner said: "We announced plans for our next two CFCs [customer fulfilment centres], in Andover and Erith, to add significant capacity to support our future growth. Both of these CFCs will use our new proprietary fulfilment solution, and we expect them to be more efficient than our existing CFCs.”
The company’s results also showed that it spent £12.5m on new vehicles last year, which are typically on five-year financing packages. It also spent £9.2m at its Hatfield hub on additional cranes and refurbishing its pick aisles, as well as £8.5m in investing in new delivery depots.
