Sainsbury’s will be opening its first dedicated online centre in Bromley-By-Bow to support its growing web-based business.

The move will eventually create 375 jobs and follows the announcement that Sainsbury’s online grocery business has reached the milestone of annual sales of £1 billion in September.

The new online centre, which is set to open within the next few years, will help Sainsbury’s meet growing demand for its online grocery service in London and the South East. When fully operational, the 185,000 sq ft facility will allow Sainsbury’s to serve an additional 20,000 customers each week.

Sainsbury’s Online now delivers to over 190,000 customers every week with sales growth of 15 per cent per year.

Jon Rudoe, Sainsbury’s Director of Online, Digital & Cross-Channel, said: “We work hard to ensure we deliver the very best service to our customers and the opening of the new Centre will enable us to maintain this. The site will be purpose built with the Sainsbury’s customer in mind and will support our existing store based operation, something that will continue to be the foundation of our online grocery business.

“I am confident that this new facility will take our online grocery operation to the next level and put us in a perfect position to meet the growing demand in London and the South East.”

With demand expected to increase rapidly in the future, Sainsbury’s is hoping to build extra capacity into its online business in London. While it will continue to pick and handle the substantial majority of online orders in our supermarkets, the Bromley-by-Bow store will help the retailer keep pace with demand in the capital.

Sainsbury’s first launched its online grocery business in 1999 and now employs more than 10,000 staff either in-store or as drivers, operating out of 214 stores across Britain.