Littlewoods and Very.co.uk to Offer Next Day Delivery on Midnight Orders

• New automated warehouse opening to process orders faster
• Currently orders need to be made before 7pm
• BUT will cost 2,000 jobs at other sites.

Littlewoods and Very.co.uk will be able to offer next day delivery on orders placed until midnight, due to a new warehouse being built.

This comes after consumers increasingly use online shopping over the high street, leaving many high street stores to face closure.

The company that owns the online retailers, Shop Direct, is investing £200 million to build a new site in the East Midlands.

The site will be fully automated, which Shop Direct said would allow it to respond more quickly to changing consumer demand.

This means that you’ll be able to place last-minute orders, and still get it the next day.

Currently, customers can only receive products on the next day if they order before 7pm.

The company said, “For Shop Direct to continue to meet customer demand, the business now needs a new, purpose-built and automated facility in a central, well-connected location.

Around 500 new jobs will be created at the site, and during peak periods such as Christmas, Shop Direct expects to employ an extra 200 to 300 agency workers.

However, the new site will come at a cost.

Three smaller sites in Greater Manchester will be closing once the new warehouse is up and running.

The sites, in Shaw, Little Hulton, and Raven, currently employ 1,177 Shop Direct employees, as well as 815 agency workers.

Derek Harding, interim group chief executive of Shop Direct, said, “This is a tough day fr the business, as we know how difficult this news will be to hear for our teams in Shaw, Little Hulton, and Raven.

“However, these proposals are necessary for our future and to enable us to continue to grow and meet rising customer expectations.”

But job loss and the opening of the new warehouse is still a few years in the future- the warehouse will not be running until 2021, and the current sites will not begin to close until mid-2020.

What do you think of this change? Let us know in the comments.