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Sainsbury’s grabs slice of food delivery market

Deliveroo is joining forces with Sainsbury’s to deliver takeaway pizzas from the supermarket’s in-store counters to local customers.

Sainsbury’s has launched a trial in five stores – Cambridge, Selly Oak, West Hove, Pimlico and Hornsey – across four UK cities which will see around 50 products listed on the Deliveroo website for home delivery.

In addition to a range of sourdough pizzas customers can order a variety of complementary sweet and savoury snacks including sides, salads and dips as well as soft drinks. A wider range of products will be added to the offer during the trial which is set to run for two months.

Sainsbury’s will recruit extra staff to run the pizza counters which will be staying open later to meet demand for late night food and dinners.

The partnership is not the first collaboration between a retailer and food delivery platform. Just Eat already delivers freshly cooked pizzas from Asda stores and the pair have recently extended their partnership by piloting a service that gives customers the chance to order 100 essential grocery items for delivery in just 30 minutes.

Both Sainsbury’s and Asda are looking to capitalise on the UK’s fast-growing food delivery market, which is already worth £8.1bn, up 13.4% since 2017 and is expected to grow to £9.8bn by 2021, according to MCA.

Thomas Brereton, retail analyst for GlobalData said the Sainsbury’s tie-up with Deliveroo enabled the retailer to gain “a small but immediate foothold in the growing on-demand foodservice industry and it paves the way for potential expansion beyond foodservice to full food and grocery fulfilment (for small basket sizes)”.

Brereton, however, cautioned that ceding control over the last-mile of delivery could have consequences. “Customer care sits at the core of Sainsbury’s business strategy, but this partnership puts the most customer-facing side of delivery in the hands of an external organisation,” he said.