Amazon Expands Ultra-Fast Delivery to More UK Cities After Closing Fresh Stores

Amazon will expand its Amazon Now service that delivers goods in less than 30 minutes to Manchester and Birmingham this year. The company will also extend same-day delivery to Ipswich and Coventry. Shoppers in parts of central and east London will be able to add fresh groceries to same-day deliveries.

The items include fruit and vegetables, meat, poultry, seafood, dairy, bread, eggs and frozen foods that can be placed in the same basket as other groceries and non-food products. The same-day grocery service will be available initially in parts of central and east London. Amazon plans to expand the service to additional postcodes and more areas across the country in the coming months.

Prime members receive the same-day grocery service as an additional free option and get free same-day delivery on orders worth more than £20. 99 delivery fee regardless of basket size. John Boumphrey, the UK country manager for Amazon, said the new home-delivery services would enable the company to “scale more broadly and faster” than the standalone stores, with grocery still “a category we want to play in”.

Amazon closed its standalone Amazon Fresh stores last year. Five of the 19 former Amazon Fresh stores are being turned into new Whole Foods outlets. Amazon booked sales of about £32bn in the UK last year, about 10% up from £29bn in 2024.

The company has said it will invest £40bn in the UK over three years from 2025. Last autumn Amazon announced plans to double the number of Prime subscription members in the UK with access to at least three of its grocery options through partnerships with Morrisons, Iceland, Co-op and Gopuff.

The company is increasing use of robotics in its warehouses, including machines guided using AI-empowered voice controls.

Amazon’s Darlington fulfilment centre has begun trialling drone flights, making Darlington the first location in the UK to trial the Prime Air delivery service. Amazon continues to take on about 1,000 apprentices a year in the UK. Boumphrey said AI and robots were “not taking jobs but changing the nature of work”, with more demand for engineering skills to maintain equipment and oversee safety.

Boumphrey said there was a “national crisis” around the number of young people not in education, training or employment. He suggested employers needed more skills in communication and problem-solving and that the government should consider making work experience mandatory.