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Amazon primed to take bite out of UK supermarkets with Amazon Fresh launch

US online retail giant Amazon is primed and ready to take a tilt at the UK’s big four supermarkets with the imminent UK launch of its Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service.

Following a successful trial of fresh food deliveries at Amazon’s East London depot, the global online retailer is now rumoured to be preparing a launch later this month.

Adding credence to the rumours is the claim by food company Bol that it is to begin stocking its range of salads on Amazon Fresh from 18 May, according to the trade magazine Grocer.

The Guardian also reports that the the US giant, which has provided fresh food deliveries in America for the last seven years, has been making a number of telling moves that hint towards an impending nationwide roll-out, including the appointment of former Asda executive Doug Gurr to run its UK operations.

Gurr has extensive experience in ecommerce and online food retailing, having been an intrinsic part of Asda’s strategy, logistics and online operations division.

In a related development, Amazon also penned a deal back in in February with Morrisons which will see hundreds of the supermarket’s products available on Amazon Prime Now and Amazon Pantry.

It marks yet more woes for the UK’s ‘big four’ supermarkets, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons, who have already felt the squeeze in recent years from budget retailers like Lidl and Aldi. While price wars at the tills and controversies, such as Tesco’s supplier mistreatment, have shaken confidence in what were once considered the four immoveable hulks of UK retail.

The current problems facing UK supermarkets was also underlined today with the release of Sainsbury’s preliminary results which saw underlying profits fall by 13.1% and like-for-like sales dip by 0.9% as a result of what the grocer dubbed a ‘competitive, deflationary environment.’

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