Amidst an apparently intractable dispute with the local authority, Asda has announced it is to close its home shopping centre in Enfield, North London. The distribution centre is responsible for delivering home shopping to more than 4,500 online grocery customers every week, and employs 261 staff.

Due to “restrictions on the site mean we are not able to make the necessary further improvements to meet the speed of fulfilment and product ranges that our customers now expect,” said Asda vice president of grocery home shopping Simon Gregg.

“Therefore, we’ve entered a consultation process with colleagues on proposals to close the facility.”

Asda has opened two fully automated home shopping DCs in London in the last 18 months. Between them the sites have created more than 700 new jobs, provide increased capacity, improved accuracy and faster fulfilment to meet customer demand.

The Enfield site first opened in 2010. “Our current proposals involve expanding capacity in our Heston centre and discussing options for colleagues to take on roles in other neighbouring stores,” said Gregg.

“In a competitive retail market, where customers rightly expect great value and ease of service, we are always looking at how we can improve our operations to meet their expectations.”