Ocado has announced the closure of its customer fulfilment centre in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, putting 2,300 jobs at risk.
Ocado Group, which jointly owns Ocado Retail with Marks & Spencer, said it would try to redeploy as many staff as possible to other sites. These include a site 14 miles away in Luton which opens soon. A redundancy consultation process has begun.
The Hatfield facility opened in 2002 – the company’s first such warehouse – but it has been superseded by newer fulfilment centres featuring more automation. Ocado said the Hatfield site accounts for around 20% of orders.
The group said its newest generation of fulfilment centres could achieve “well over 200 units picked per labour hour”, around a third more than Hatfield. Newer centres were also more energy-efficient and could fulfil more same-day deliveries.
Ocado Group chief executive Tim Steiner 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.”
Steiner added: “We want to keep as much of this talent and experience within the business as possible and expect to retain a large proportion of colleagues impacted by these changes, either in our new Luton [customer fulfilment centre] or across our wider UK network.”
Dave Gill, national officer at the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw), said: “This proposal is obviously very concerning for our members and we will now go into consultation talks with Ocado, where Usdaw officials and reps will look at the company’s proposed business case.
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“Our priorities are to save as many jobs as possible, seek redeployment opportunities if the closure goes ahead and get the best deal available for staff affected. In the meantime, we are providing our members with the support, advice and representation they need at this very difficult time.”
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