Online grocer Ocado Retail has announced that it will shutter its customer fulfilment centre in Hatfield, Hertfordshire this summer.

The Hatfield centre is the oldest in Ocado’s network and employs around 2,300 staff. The company, which is increasingly moving towards robotic customer fulfilment centres, said that it has started a consultation process with existing staff and plans to redeploy as many as possible to other sites including its soon-to-open location in Luton, Bedfordshire.

Ocado said that it did not expect any change to the volume of orders fulfilled, and that current customer orders fulfilled from the site would be moved to other locations.

The company expects that investment in new tech will facilitate further improvement and productivity and capacity.

Tim Steiner, the chief executive of Ocado Group and chair of Ocado Retail, said: “As the online grocery channel grows, our new, enhanced fulfilment centres and technologies will drive a step change in customer experience and efficiency. With this capacity coming online, now is the right time for us to halt operations at our oldest facility at Hatfield and consider our future options for the site.”

Ocado in February said that it was pausing the rollout of new distribution centres after posting record annual losses of more than £500 million for 2022.

Share Story: