Mayor of London Boris Johnson has welcomed plans for a Waitrose online grocery depot in Coulsdon which will create up to 500 jobs. 

The supermarket giant is to open an 80,000 sq ft warehouse, to supply shopping ordered through its website, in Ullswater Crescent next year after finalising an agreement with the landowner this week.

It will be only its second online delivery depot and will be twice the size of the first, in Acton. 

Recruitment for the warehouse, due to open in September 2014 in response to booming online business, will begin in the summer. 

Mr Johnson said: "This is great news for South London, representing a major investment by a leading UK brand into Coulsdon.

"Waitrose.com's arrival is another welcome sign of economic confidence in the capital, which will create hundreds of job opportunities for Londoners in a company well known for its attractiveness as an employer."

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The purpose-built warehouse will be built in Ullswater Crescent

Waitrose this week finalised plans Evander Properties and British Airways Pension Fund, which own the site, to proceed with the depot, for which Croydon Council granted planning permission in March.

It will significantly increase the grocery retailer's presence in Coulsdon, where it has operated a store in Brighton Street since 1971. 

Rob Collins, Waitrose retail director, said: "We’re very excited to build on our history in Coulsdon by creating new jobs at a multi-million pound depot which represents one of the changing faces of food shopping."

Richard Ottaway, Croydon South MP, said: "This is terrific news for the local community and a major boost for our local jobs market."

"I wrote to Waitrose last year to express my wholehearted support for their proposals for a distribution centre on this particular site in Coulsdon.

"At the time it was anticipated that 400 jobs would be created – so today’s news is even better than I could have hoped for."

 

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