Big 4 grocer Tesco has scaled back its plans for a network of new urban fulfilment centre (UFC) in the UK, despite the launch of its sixth centre in Cambridgeshire.
The newest urban fulfilment centre (UFC) in Cambridgeshire, comes after after it reported a growth in online grocery sales.
The sixth UFC has opened its Bar Hill Extra store, featuring a dedicated online picking hub, serving 22 vans as well as click and collect. The supermarket giant also revealed plans to launch 25 of the UFCs by the end of 2023, with the new launch joining its West Bromwich, Lakeside, Bradford, Horwich and Rutherglen stores.
However, the supermarket giant said it had dropped the target in favour of a “test and learn approach”.
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Last week, Tesco announced its online sales saw growth in Q3 last year, reporting a 59% increase compared with pre-pandemic levels.
“Our online orders remain more than 50% higher than pre-pandemic levels and we are committed to making online shopping as easy and convenient as possible for our customers,” Tesco online operations and fulfilment development director Rob Graham told The Grocer.
“We are delighted to open our sixth urban fulfilment centre at Bar Hill, which will allow us to pick orders from a dedicated space within the store and improve efficiency, giving customers a more convenient store shopping experience overall.”
Grocery Gazette has contacted Tesco for further comment.
