Colruyt to start home deliveries

Belgian supermarket chain Colruyt has announced it will start delivering groceries to customers in Antwerp and Brussels. The Belgian market leader currently only offers pick-ups from stores.

Catch up in cities

The Colruyt Group announces it will further invest in stores in Belgium, France and Luxembourg, but mostly sees potential in major cities. “We have a smaller market share in urban areas, so now we want to focus on those to catch up as soon as possible”, Jo Willemyns said during a strategic update. The marketing manager explained the inner-city expansion would not happen through franchising, “unlike some of our competitors.”

The urban customer will also benefit from a further focus on e-commerce. A new logistics centre between Brussels and Antwerp will finally allow the retailer to deliver groceries to customers’ homes in both of Belgium’s major cities. Later on, the project will also be implemented in smaller cities.

Moreover, “in five regions we are working on a peer-to-peer network that allows customers to pick-up groceries and deliver them to other customers, for a fixed fee. We see this as a sustainable way for home deliveries.”

Four areas of growth

Colruyt Group has also targeted four categories with high potential to focus on in its supermarkets. A project has already started to offer flowers in a few stores. Drugstores are another area, for which Colruyt can rely on its experience with Newpharma.

Meal boxes are the third focus area, for which the retailer has already acquired Smartmat. “We currently have the second biggest market share, following only HelloFresh.” The fourth defined area of high priority is bread, for which a fresher offer will be installed in the Okay chain first. “Later on, Colruyt supermarkets may follow suit.”