Tesco dotcom distribution depot to create up to 750 jobs
The depot, covering 4.8ha (12 acres) on the site of the former Esso Research Centre at Milton Hill, near Abingdon, will involve the construction of a warehouse, which will operate 24 hours a day.
A spokesman told FoodManufacture.co.uk: “We are pleased that our plans for a new dotcom centre at Milton Hill have been given the go-ahead by the council.
“Online shopping is proving increasingly popular, and this new centre will enable us to improve our service to customers in Oxfordshire and the surrounding area.”
The new delivery centre will fulfil online shopping orders to homes within a 45-minute drive of the warehouse.
The 11 councillors at the Vale of White Horse District Council planning committee voted unanimously to support the planning permission.
‘Beneficial as an employment site’
Councillor Roger Cox, cabinet member for planning and deputy council leader, said: “It's great news... This will be beneficial as an employment site.
“It’s got good access and of course it’ll be good for the environment because it means people are making fewer trips to the supermarket.”
The site had received outline planning permission already but this had expired in 2011. The current approval will last for five years.
It is understood that about 750 people will be employed at the centre in the equivalent of 500 full-time posts.
The warehouse will have a floor area of 11,458m2 and about 481 parking spaces, including around 260 for staff and 220 for delivery vans.
Online grocery market
Tesco was the only supermarket to have increased its share of the online grocery market in the past year, according to figures from Kantar Worldpanel.
The retail giant’s share of the internet grocery shopping market climbed by 2.4% in the first 19 weeks of the year, according to a report in The Sunday Times. The retailer now takes almost 50p of every £1 spent on online food shopping.
Ocado and Asda had both lost 0.6% share of the online grocery market. Sainsbury registered a 1.1% drop while Waitrose remained static.
Meanwhile, Tesco was said to be planning to launch its own-label tablet in a bid to take on big beasts Apple and Amazon in the highly lucrative but very competitive personal computing sector.
The device – complete with online grocery shopping app – will be on sale by Christmas, according to press reports.
Supermarket rival Asda recently unveiled plans to post endorsements culled from Twitter and Facebook on the packaging of its Chosen by You own-label food range.
