AO opens third Crewe warehouse as online demand grows

Online electricals retailer AO has opened a third warehouse in Crewe to cope with growing volumes fuelled by the increase in internet shopping during the Covid-19 pandemic and growing demand from third party customers.

The company is also on the hunt for further warehousing to manage growing demand.

The new warehouse adds a further 110,000sq ft of distribution space giving AO  a total of almost 1 million sq ft in Crewe.

The facility will support inbound retail sales and help AO to grow its third-party logistics business, which has seen increased demand over the past two years from major new clients including Aldi, The Cotswold Company, Simba and Keter.

David Ashwell, AO Logistics MD, said: “This is a great measure of the confidence that our third party clients have in AO. During the Covid-19 pandemic our amazing team has been delivering safely and efficiently, providing a lifeline for AO.com’s customers which in turn, third party clients have benefitted from."

The new warehouse has been named after the late Alan Latchford, co-founder of DRL, which became AO.

John Roberts, AO founder and chief executive, said: “Latchford is named after Alan Latchford, who passed away in March.

“He was on the other side of the famous £1 that led to the creation of AO.

“On Christmas Eve 1999, he bet me £1 that we couldn’t use the internet to transform how people buy white goods. Twenty years on, the opening of our Latchford warehouse is a lasting tribute to Alan.”