Food retailer teams up with e-cargobikes.com to offer shoppers in central London zero emission grocery deliveries direct to their oor
The Co-op has launched its first online food delivery service in London, partnering with e-cargobikes.com to ensure all groceries are sent direct to customers' doors using zero emission, electric motor-assisted bicycles.
The online service is initially only available to shoppers living within four kilometres of the Co-op's store on Kings Road in Chelsea. However, the retailer said it plans to roll the service out to eight further London stores in the near future.
The move is the first time the Co-op has offered online delivery via a dedicated website, enabling shoppers to receive delivery within two hours of ordering at an allocated time for a £5 charge with a minimum £15 spend, it said.
The announcement follows Co-op's trial of self-driving delivery robots in Milton Keynes last year as part of a collaboration with Starship Technologies.
Chris Conway, head of food digital at the Co-op, said: "This is an exciting time for the Co-op. As the leaders in convenience shopping, we want to look at different ways of bringing our award-winning products closer to shoppers, and this new service with e-cargobikes.com does exactly that."
It marks the second major retail partnership for London-based e-cargobikes.com following its work with Sainsbury's.
The company claims its couriers can deliver the same amount of goods as a conventional grocery van over an eight-hour shift while only using a fraction of the energy and while producing zero emissions or fuel costs.
James FitzGerald, managing director of e-cargobikes.com, said he was "thrilled" to be partnering with Co-op. "We are reimagining grocery deliveries and exploring a more sustainable transport system - our e-cargobikes are able to deliver the same amount as a diesel-van over a shift but require only 0.5 per cent of the energy," he said.