Morrisons Teams Up With Deliveroo To Offer 30 Minutes Online Deliveries

UK supermarket chain Morrisons has teamed up with takeaways delivery app service Deliveroo to offer shoppers delivery of online groceries orders within 30 minutes. The partnership will be rolled out immediately to 130 of its supermarkets, with more to follow if it proves a success. The company said the initiative will both help boost capacity and reduce the need for shoppers to break isolation to make shopping trips.

The scheme will initially cover 25% of UK shoppers but will be restricted to a limited range of 70 ‘core’ groceries items including tinned tomatoes, pasta, bread and chicken breasts.

Morrisons has been slower than its rivals in rolling out its own online shopping capacity in recent years, choosing instead to partner with online groceries shopping and automated warehouse technology specialists Ocado. That partnership will soon conclude after Ocado chose to sign a new partnership agreement with Marks & Spencer, which will come into effect when its deal with Morrisons expires later this year. Morrisons also partners with Amazon on online groceries shopping and deliveries.

Last year established a trial relationship with Deliveroo, the start-up founded in 2013, to deliver orders from its hot food counters in its Canning Town store in East London. Deliveroo’s Global VP for New Businesses Ajay Lakhwani commented:

“During this worrying period we want to play our role in making sure people have access to a range of items, in particular the vulnerable who cannot leave their homes.”

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, Morrisons has extended its partnership with Amazon and completed more deliveries through the still running Ocado tie-up. However, Ocado last month admitted that it did not have the capacity to deal with the surge in demand. Deliveroo will now pick up some of the slack.

Another tactic Morrisons has adopted in an attempt to meet demand is to offer pre-selected and packed £30 groceries packages shipped directly from its central warehouses. The supermarket chain has also launched a scheme for click-and-collect food boxes for NHS workers, delivered to hospital car parks.

The Morrisons share price was up around 0.8% today in early afternoon trading.