Deliveroo has taken a further plunge into the online grocery market by launching a new delivery service with Morrisons.
Deliveroo Hop can be used by customers around Battersea and Vauxhall, though the companies are reportedly ambitious to expand its coverage.
It will compete with the new breed of grocery delivery start-ups including Getir, Gorillas and Zapp.
“Deliveroo Hop will enhance our on-demand grocery offering for both consumers and our grocery partners,” Deliveroo chief executive Will Shu said.
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Grocery deliveries made up 7 per cent of the startup’s sales in the first half of 2021, up from 5 per cent last year.
“The percentage of our business that is represented by grocery continues to grow and grow and grow,” Shu claimed in August.
Deliveroo first struck up a partnership with Morrisons in April 2020, although there were rumours of a deal as early as 2019, when it extricated itself from an Ocado contract.
This year, Deliveroo has doubled its footprint to 327 Morrisons stores across the country.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Morrisons online director James Badger said the companies had the “ambition” to grow Hop “quickly”.
However, Shu has left open the option of working with other supermarkets to expand the service’s coverage.
Hop marks Deliveroo’s first attempt to become a retailer, with Morrisons acting as a wholesaler.
In their existing supermarket-delivery partnership, Morrisons pay Deliveroo a commission for dropping off groceries.
Curiously, Morrisons has tried to shift away from retail wholesale in recent months.
The Big 4 grocer recently signed a deal with Starstock, which lets pubs, cafés and restaurants order directly from suppliers, while cancelling “ad hoc” deliveries to independent shops.
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