Aldi has ended its relationship with Deliveroo, today removing 130 stores nationwide from the platform.
The discounter first partnered with the courier business in May 2020, and rolled out the service to 20 stores in London, Greater Manchester, Cambridge and the Midlands. The number of participating stores had more than doubled by the end of that year, and continued to rise through last year.
Customers living within a 6km radius of the participating stores could choose from about 400 essential Aldi grocery items, which were picked and packed by store staff. The service came with a £4.99 delivery charge and a mark-up on shelf prices.
But a return to more normal shopping patterns has seen demand for the service fall away, The Grocer understands.
The Grocer approached Aldi for comment after spotting several of its stores had disappeared from the platform.
“We have decided to end our trial with Deliveroo to focus on our Click and Collect service, which remains on offer at more than 200 of our stores nationwide,” a spokesman for Aldi said.
Only a few months ago, Aldi was one of the featured supermarket partners in a major television advertising campaign from Deliveroo. The ad pushed the platform as offering “a world of groceries in the palm of your hand”.
The halting of what Aldi referred to as “a trial” close to two years since it started raises some doubt about the continued success of Deliveroo as a platform to buy supermarket groceries post-pandemic.
Since the start of the Covid crisis, the platform secured or expanded partnerships with several retailers – among them Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Morrisons and Co-op – seeking to offer customers alternatives to visiting physical stores or struggling to secure delivery slots.
In October, Deliveroo revealed it offered delivery from more than 10,000 grocery partner sites, adding there was “continued rapid expansion with major partners”. In the first half of 2021, globally, on-demand grocery represented 7% of Deliveroo’s total gross transaction value.
Deliveroo’s rival Uber Eats had also secured deals with Iceland and Sainsbury’s through the course of the pandemic. Just Eat made its first move into UK grocery this month, partnering with Asda on the takeaway delivery company’s “first tie-up with a major UK grocer”.
Deliveroo releases its fourth quarter trading update tomorrow morning.
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