Tesco is trialling a one-hour grocery delivery service called Whoosh, for customers in selected postcodes near its Wolverhampton Willenhall Express store.
Customers can order via the Tesco app or website. All items are safely packaged and delivered by bike, moped or car, with a £5 delivery fee. Whoosh customers can still earn Clubcard points, use coupons, and take advantage of in-store offers.
Chris Poad, Tesco’s online managing director, said: “Customers are telling us that they would welcome the addition of a 60-minute delivery to their door option as part of our online grocery service. We’ll use the pilot to understand how Whoosh could work best for both our customers and our colleagues.”
Rivals including Sainsbury’s and Waitrose have stepped up their efforts to provide customers with rapid delivery services. Sainbury’s, Asda, Co-op and Whole Foods also have deals with Deliveroo, the technology company, which now generates 10 per cent of its UK sales from supermarket deliveries. Sainsbury’s has been rolling out its own bicycle delivery service, Chop Chop, to cities across the UK and this month Waitrose said it would create 400 jobs to support its partnership with Deliveroo.
Last month Tesco, which has 336,392 employees and 3,777 shops in the UK and Ireland, reported that group revenue fell by 0.4 per cent to £57.9 billion in the year to February, compared with £58.1 billion a year earlier. Pre-tax profit fell by 19.7 per cent to £825 million from £1.028 billion after the company handed back £585 million of business rates relief in December. The supermarket accelerated the growth of its online delivery business during the pandemic, with sales rising by 77 per cent last year to £6.3 billion.
