AF Blakemore, one of the UK’s largest family-owned food and drink companies operating as a Spar UK wholesaler, has expanded its partnership with Snappy Shopper to enable rapid delivery from nearly 170 stores.

The rollout, across August and September, increased AF Blakemore’s Snappy Shopper estate from 95 stores to 167.

The expanded partnership will see customers able to order groceries, everyday essentials, snacks, drinks and household products from their local Spar for rapid delivery through the Spar Delivered service, powered by Snappy Shopper technology.

CJ Antal-Smith, chief commercial officer at AF Blakemore & Sons, said: “Our focus is on making shopping with Spar as convenient and accessible as possible for the communities we serve.

“Expanding Spar Delivered across more of our estate gives more customers the choice to shop with their local Spar online, while enabling more of our stores to benefit from the continued growth of rapid grocery delivery.

“We’re pleased to be building on our partnership with Snappy Shopper through this latest expansion.”

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Customers can check availability in their area through Spar Delivered.

Greg Deacon, vice president, retail groups at Snappy Shopper, said: “This is a significant expansion of our partnership with AF Blakemore and a great opportunity to bring rapid delivery to even more Spar customers.

“Adding around 70 stores considerably increases the scale of the existing partnership, while also taking Snappy Shopper into around 40 areas where we do not currently have a retail partner. That means more communities will be able to access convenient, rapid delivery from their local Spar.

“We’re looking forward to supporting AF Blakemore throughout the rollout and continuing to grow the partnership together.”

Deacon spoke exclusively to Grocery Gazette in June, he discussed consumers’ digital expectations; building trust in Q-commerce; and technology as a leveller.