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Morrisons is set to start offering online grocery deliveries in London by the second half of next year, as it attempts to catch up with bigger rivals who have offered the service for several years.
A £216 million deal with Ocado will see the supermarket start making its first deliveries in Warwickshire, near its distribution centre in Dordon, before rolling out the trial to Yorkshire using a spoke warehouse in Leeds.
Chief executive Dalton Philips said he expects deliveries to be available to half the country by the end of 2014. He added: “Everything is still on track and we don’t expect to announce any further write- downs against our online business.”
The news comes as Morrisons, the UK’s fourth biggest supermarket chain, continued to struggle, with sales falling for the seventh consecutive quarter and slightly below expectations, down 2.3%. Philips explained: “We’re the first to report since after the hot summer when people were spending heavily and what you’ve seen since in the market is a massive reduction in market growth.”
The company will open an extra 100 convenience stores in 2014, on top of 100 due by the end of this year. It is keen to have most of the new sites in London.