Sainsbury’s partners with Deliveroo to trial takeaway pizza

Sainsbury’s is launching a trial with Deliveroo to offer customers freshly baked pizza delivered to their door.

Launching today in five stores – Cambridge, Selly Oak, West Hove, Pimlico and Hornsey – the trial is the first time a UK supermarket has offered hot takeaways through Deliveroo.

Over the next two months, Sainsbury’s will test customer appetite for ordering takeaways from their local Sainsbury’s counters through a food delivery platform.

Customers will be able to choose from nearly 50 Sainsbury’s products on Deliveroo, including a range of sourdough pizzas, sweet and savoury snacks, sides, salads and dips, and soft drinks, with a wider range of products to be added during the trial.

“With more and more shoppers looking for convenient and affordable meals delivered to their doors, our trial with Deliveroo brings our great value hot food direct to customers’ homes,” says Clodagh Moriarty, chief digital officer at Sainsbury’s.

“We’re committed to making it as quick and easy as possible for our customers to shop with us and we’ll be listening to their feedback throughout the trial to understand how we can best serve their hot food delivery needs. We’re excited to see what our customers think before deciding if, how and where we go next with the offer.”

The UK’s food delivery market is currently worth £8.1bn, up 13.4% since 2017, and is expected to grow to £9.8bn by 2021.

Morrisons also has its eye on the ultra-fast delivery space, and earlier this year relaxed its long-term partnership with Ocado to allow it to scope out new opportunities in this area.

While it would not disclose any details of the “range of commercial discussions” it has been having, Morrisons hinted there have been talks with companies in the same bracket as Just Eat and Uber.

Speaking at the time, Morrisons boss Dave Potts said: “As both a food maker and shopkeeper, and not in every location in the country with bricks and mortar, I do think there are special opportunities ahead for Morrisons to be involved in that consumer change around next meal and last mile and how those things can be fulfilled.

“There are a number of companies entering the market to be part of that last mile of fulfillment, very short time-scales between an order from the consumer to the receipt of the goods, who believe their know-how and their wheels can add value to both retailers and consumers. [Just Eat and Uber] would be part of the type of companies who are involved in that.”