// Ocado is stopping operations at its Hatfield customer fulfilment centre, placing over 2,000 roles at risk
// The business has begun a consultation with staff with hopes to redeploy “as many as possible” to other sites
Ocado Retail, the 50/50 joint venture between Ocado Group and M&S has said it will halt operations at its Hatfield customer fulfilment centre, putting 2,300 roles at risk.
The online grocer said its Hatfield site was the oldest in the network and is responsible for handing around 20% of its weekly orders, although it doesn’t expect any change to the volume of orders fulfilled due to the stoppage of operations there.
Ocado has begun a consultation with staff and hoped to redeploy “as many as possible” to other sites, including its planned hub in Luton.
The company said: “The Hatfield CFC remains a foundation stone in the Ocado story, as the company’s first fulfilment centre and a core test bed for the Ocado operating model, now deployed worldwide with Ocado Group’s retail partners.
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“However, over the past decade, Ocado has unveiled a raft of new innovations, enabling huge leaps forward in both CFC productivity and customer experience.
“The latest generation of robotic CFCs are consistently achieving well over 200 units picked per labour hour within the facility (‘UPH’), compared to UPH of around 150 for our first generation CFC in Hatfield. The newest sites also have much lower energy usage.”
“We have many brilliant Hatfield-based colleagues who have been with us for a long time and are a big part of our journey. We want to keep as much of this talent and experience within the business as possible and expect to retain a large proportion of colleagues impacted.”
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