Foodstuffs North Island, a 100% New Zealand-owned co-operative, with locally owned and operated supermarkets in communities across New Zealand’s North Island, has partnered with Tesco’s e-commerce consultancy business, Transcend Retail Solutions, to help transform its online business by launching a new grocery picking service for Foodstuffs North Island stores.

Currently operating in two Foodstuffs North Island stores, under the banners PAK’nSAVE and New World, the new service will build on the solid foundations provided by Foodstuffs store teams and support centre colleagues to accelerate the co-operative's e-commerce journey by providing a more efficient and accurate picking solution that better utilises a store’s warehouse space. This will help Foodstuffs better service its customers and grow its online business more rapidly.

As the UK’s leading online grocer, delivering over one million orders every single week, Tesco has set up Transcend to share its experience and solutions with international businesses on their own e-commerce journey. 

For Foodstuffs North Island, Transcend has provided advice on the co-op's fulfilment strategy and provided the picking software, in addition to the hardware required for colleagues to pick online orders more efficiently and accurately. With two stores going live initially, Foodstuffs North Island plans to roll out the service across all its New World and PAK’nSAVE stores in the coming months. 

Dr. Oliver Vogt, CEO of Transcend at Tesco said, “We are absolutely delighted to be working with Foodstuffs North Island to help set them up to win in online and deliver a fantastic service for their customers. We know that customers really appreciate the convenience of an online offering, but it can be complex and time consuming to fully leverage the potential. At Tesco, we have built the leading online businesses in the UK, Ireland and in Central Europe and we’re delighted to bring our solutions and expertise to Foodstuffs as we progress this partnership.”

Chris Quin, Chief Executive of Foodstuffs North Island said: “We aspire to be one of the most customer-driven retailers in the world and that means having a world-class online business, which is why we’re proud to be collaborating with the team at Transcend.  They have a quarter of a century of Tesco experience, and we’re excited about the benefits we’re expecting to deliver to the 2.7 million customer visits we have in our stores and online each week.” 

Whether companies are just starting out with online, or looking to elevate their fulfilment strategy, Transcend is able to bring all of Tesco’s experience in fulfilment to provide bespoke in-house solutions with world-beating performance.

Transcend offers retailers an end-to-end fulfilment service including developing a fulfilment strategy that meets the needs of a retailer and its customers, access to the same picking solutions, tried and tested by Tesco (Transcend Picking and Transcend Micro Fulfilment Centre), and expertise in final-mile delivery, all underpinned by operational consultancy by real grocers that have done it for Tesco.