Tesco has announced that its one-hour delivery service, Whoosh, will be rolled out to at least 600 stores by the end of 2023, expanding the retailer's presence in the quick commerce arena.
On a conference call to announce the group's third quarter and Christmas trading results, Tesco's Ken Murphy revealed that Whoosh is currently available from 115 Tesco stores, and will be in "about 200 stores by the end of the financial year", before a rapid expansion next year.
Tesco's financial year runs to the end of February.
"It's performing well," Murphy said of the performance of Whoosh to date. "Customers really like the service. In truth, the vast majority of orders are getting fulfilled in half an hour and customers are responding really well to that."
Launch Of Whoosh
Tesco launched Whoosh in May 2021, with the service offering a range of around 1,700 SKUs.
In October, it followed this up with a further venture into quick commerce, as it announced a partnership with Gorillas, a quick commerce specialist that offers delivery in as little as ten minutes.
That service is currently available from two Tesco stores, on a trial basis, and was described as "very much a test and learn opportunity for both Gorillas and Tesco", according to Murphy.
Read More: Tesco Third-Quarter Results – What The Analysts Said
Future Of Quick Commerce
On the topic of whether quick commerce is likely to become an established proposition for shoppers, Murphy added, "I think that it's certainly a mission that customers now want, so we're clear in our minds that this is a mission that needs to be fulfilled.
"It's a truly incremental mission, and whether it's taking from other missions is hard to tell. But we do think it's somewhere that we need to be, and we need to have a good quality proposition that fits into our overall proposition, to make sure that customers can shop us wherever, whenever, and however they want."
Announcing its third-quarter results, Tesco also said that a new urban fulfilment centre (UFC) to fulfil online orders is set to open in Bradford next week.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine. Article by Conor Farrelly. For more Retail news, click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
