Online supermarket and supplier to Marks and Spencer, Ocado has opened a new warehouse in Purfleet, Essex. This is the firm’s third customer fulfilment centre it has opened this year, and will be the second largest in its network. 


According to Ocado when all three new customer fulfilment centres are fully operational they will be handle up to 600,000 orders a week, almost doubling current capacity.

The new site will employ almost 1,500 people when at full capacity. Melanie Smith, chief executive of Ocado Retail, said the expansion will help the company “to deliver to more customers than ever before”.

Currently Ocado reaches 75% of UK households and “significant investment continues to be made to expand capacity”. It is also investing heavily in its Ocado Zoom dark store micro-fulfilment centres in the ultra-fast delivery space.

The company, together with its partner Marks and Spencer is expanding to meet the strong growth in demand for grocery deliveries that has not apparently relented since lockdown restrictions were eased in the UK in summer.