An Uber Eats rider
(Picture: Uber Eats)Tesco has partnered with Uber Eats to deliver groceries in 60 minutes through the supermarket’s ‘Whoosh’ service.
Tesco launched Whoosh in May 2021 and now offers the service at 200 of its Express stores, with plans to expand to 600 stores in 2022. The retailer has created 20,000 jobs to meet customer demand for online deliveries since the first coronavirus lockdown.
The new partnership with Uber Eats will cover 20 stores including in Norwich, St Albans and Letchworth.
Alex Troughton, head of new verticals and grocery at Uber Eats UK said: “It’s clear that the needs of businesses and consumers have been rapidly evolving in recent years and that trend is accelerating.”
Loss-making rapid-delivery start-ups have piled into the grocery market in the past few years, with many striking deals with the country’s biggest supermarkets to shore up their market share.
In April 2021, Sainsbury’s partnered with Deliveroo to offer speedy delivery in over 100 UK stores. In October, Tesco partnered with Gorillas to offer a 10-minute delivery service at five stores. Morrisons partnered with Gorillas rival Gopuff on 20 minute grocery deliveries in March 2022.
Rapid delivery tech businesses have soared in value over the past two years thanks to a boom in online ordering during coronavirus restrictions.
Gorillas completed a $1 billion funding round in October 2021, valuing the company at $3.1 billion, while rival Getir secured a $768 million funding round in March 2022 which valued it at $11.8 billion.
In July 2021, GoPuff raised $1 billion in funding, valuing the Philadelphia-based company at $15 billion.
San Francisco-based Uber, parent company of Uber Eats, has never turned a profit since its 2019 IPO, posting a loss of $2 billion in 2021. London-based Deliveroo posted a loss of £300 million in 2021.
