Waitrose puts hundreds of jobs at risk as it prepares to shut warehouse
Waitrose is putting hundreds of jobs at risk as the grocer prepares to shut a north London warehouse it opened just four years ago.
More than 500 workers at the supermarket’s Enfield warehouse face losing their jobs, after the company said it was planning to close the site this summer.
The Enfield site was opened just four years ago as part of a £100m investment in Waitrose’s online delivery business.
However, the John Lewis Partnership, which owns Waitrose, said it now wanted to close the warehouse in the face of rising rental costs. Its lease is set to expire next year and it has been in negotiations with the landlord. The closure is expected to save Waitrose around £8.7m.
The majority of the 545 roles at the warehouse have been deemed as having “no suitable alternative employment”. The changes were first reported by Retail Week and the Grocer.
The Enfield warehouse is used to fulfil online orders placed by customers but Waitrose will now use alternative sites in Coulsdon and Greenford to serve shoppers in the area if the proposals go ahead.
A Waitrose spokesman said: “With rental costs at Enfield due to increase and capacity elsewhere in our network, we are considering the closure of the site.
“While not an option we’re exploring lightly, the proposal would maintain our high levels of customer service for Waitrose.com and support future growth.”
Staff are understood to have been told about the planned closure on Thursday morning. John Lewis said no decision would be made until it had fully consulted with employees at the site.
The Enfield site was only opened in 2020 as part of a significant expansion of Waitrose’s online business. The supermarket’s then online chief Ben Stimson said at the time that the warehouse was “a big part of our expansion plans”.
Waitrose was forced to invest heavily in its online delivery capacity after a 19-year partnership with Ocado came to an end in 2020. The collaboration ended after M&S agreed a tie-up with Ocado.
Plans to close the Enfield warehouse come as the John Lewis Partnership races to cut costs. It has set a goal of axing £600m of costs by January 2026.
Management has warned that as many as 11,000 jobs could be at risk from the changes.
While painful, the turnaround push at John Lewis Partnership is beginning to yield results. The group made a pre-tax profit of £56m for the 12 months to January, compared to a £234m loss the prior year.
