Waitrose warehouse closure threatens jobs

WAITROSE is putting hundreds of jobs at risk as it prepares to shut a warehouse it opened four years ago.

More than 500 workers at the supermarket’s warehouse in Enfield, north London, face losing their jobs, after the company said it was planning to close the site this summer. The site was part of a £100m investment in Waitrose’s online delivery business.

But the John Lewis Partnership, which owns Waitrose, said it wanted to close the warehouse in the face of rising rental costs. The closure is expected to save about £8.7m. The majority of the 545 roles have been deemed as having “no suitable alternative employment”. The changes were first reported by Retail Week and The Grocer.

A Waitrose spokesman said: “With rental costs at Enfield due to increase and capacity elsewhere, we are considering closure. 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 yesterday morning. John Lewis said no decision would be made until it had fully consulted with employees at the site.

The Enfield site was opened in 2020 as part of an expansion of its online business. Ben Stimson, the supermarket’s then online chief, 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 ended in 2020. The collaboration ended after M&S agreed a tie-up with Ocado.

The planned closure come as the John Lewis Partnership races to cut £600m of costs by January 2026.