Waitrose has today announced that it is expanding its on-demand grocery trial with Deliveroo to 25 new shops across the UK to meet demand, just six weeks into a 12-week trial.

The original trial launched in September in five shops and by 20th October will be available in a further 25 locations*, including new areas such as Winchester, Hereford, Brighton, Glasgow and Solihull. 3.1 million households across the UK will now be able to enjoy Waitrose on Deliveroo for the first time, delivered in as little as under 30 minutes.

The trial partnership is proving hugely popular with Deliveroo customers. Sales at the original five shops have grown continually since the launch with half of orders being made by repeat customers.

The extended trial is expected to continue until the end of November in order to understand the potential for future growth. Waitrose is also in discussions with Deliveroo about joint community initiatives.

Waitrose has also added an additional 150 products, including a wider range of ready meals and health and beauty lines to the Deliveroo menu, taking the total number of  products on the Deliveroo app to more than 650. Lemons, avocados and strawberries have been the most popular items to date.

The Deliveroo service complements Waitrose’s two-hour home delivery service, Waitrose Rapid, which now has over 37,000 customers, a fourfold increase compared to pre-Covid. Additionally, Waitrose.com provides online access to a full-shop range and now offers over 190,000 weekly slots, compared to 60,000 before the pandemic, with plans underway to increase capacity to 250,000 weekly slots.

James Bailey, Executive Director for Waitrose, said: “This trial has made a very promising start in attracting customers to Waitrose through an entirely new new channel – and is already contributing to significant sales growth in all of the branches where it is up and running.

The trial with Deliveroo started on 1st September from Waitrose shops in Bracknell and Clifton, before launching in Surbiton, Fitzroy Street (Cambridge) and Notting Hill shops on 3rd September. It added Bayswater on the 1st October and will launch in 24 new locations by 20th October: