British online supermarket Ocado Retail, a joint venture between Ocado Group and Marks & Spencer, would stop operations at its Hatfield customer fulfilment centre this summer, Ocado said on Tuesday.
The step comes as retailers increasingly shift to robotic customer fulfilment centres, which are more productive and have lower energy usage.
Looking Ahead
Ocado said it did not expect any change to the volume of orders fulfilled due to the stoppage of operations at Hatfield, adding that current customer orders fulfilled from the site would be moved to the company's other facilities around the UK.
Hatfield, the oldest facility in the Ocado network, has around 2,300 employees and the retailer said it has started a consultation process with them to redeploy as many people as possible to other sites, primarily to the soon-to-be-opened Luton site.
Improved Productivity
Ocado also said it expected further improvement in productivity and increased capacity for same-day deliveries with the help of new technologies.
Last month, the company kept its financial guidance for the full year as it reported a 3.4% rise in first- quarter revenue, driven by more customers using its services.
The business, fell to a loss in 2021-22 as even its typically more affluent shoppers felt the squeeze from higher inflation and bought fewer items when they visited its site.
Read More: UK's Ocado Retail Keeps Profit Guidance After Quarterly Sales Rise: Source
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