Anne Bruce Iceland.co.uk is ramping up its home shopping operations in West London as it prepares for a nationwide roll out of an extended fresh food driven offer. Iceland.co.uk director of home shopping Jon Grey said: "We aim to extend our online offer to 10,000 items, the best of Booker and Iceland lines, changing the paradigm for home shopping by taking the RDC network out of it and obtaining fresh produce from source." In trials of the upgraded service under way in west London, Iceland has abandoned its store based picking model and is fulfiling customer orders from the Booker warehouse in Sunbury on Thames. Fruit and veg, fish, bread and deli items are sourced daily to order from local outlets and suppliers, including Billingsgate fish market. Grey said: "We are picking for individual customers straight from the market, and consolidating orders at the Booker warehouse, so there is no need to hold fresh stock. "We are doing something which changes supermarket home shopping, going full circle back up the supply chain." Grey said Iceland.co.uk would start low key direct marketing activity in West London over the next few weeks. It will ensure it has operating systems right in that area before sourcing fresh suppliers to support gradual roll out nationwide. He said: "We are determined to get the service right, and so far trials have exceeded expectations. We are seeing the same sort of basket sizes as in Iceland stores, but different customers. "We are taking customers from other supermarkets, not stealing our own business." He added that Booker was conducting similar business-to-business trials. l See Opinion, p14. {{NEWS }}

Topics