Ocado won't hire new staff for Luton warehouse despite closing Hatfield site

The online grocers announced that the Hertfordshire base would close – putting around 2,300 jobs at risk, as it shifts to automated sites, using robotics to fulfil orders.

A statement from Ocado said: “Ocado's priority and focus will be to redeploy as many people as possible to other sites, primarily to the soon to be opened Luton customer fulfilment centre.”

Tim Steiner, CEO of Ocado Group and Chairman of Ocado Retail said: “We want to keep as much of this talent and experience within the business as possible and expect to retain a large proportion of colleagues impacted by these changes, either in our new Luton CFC or across our wider UK network.”