Tesco to trial drone deliveries in Ireland

Manna promises delivery in three minutes or less within 2km

A Manna Aero drone making a delivery. Picture: Jason Cairnduff Reuters

Tesco will trial grocery home deliveries using drones next month, as it experiments with different ways to reach more customers.

Chief Executive Dave Lewis said the pilot will take place in Ireland, where partner Manna already has a license to operate.

Food retailers across the globe have rapidly expanded their pick-up and delivery services in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic with several following U.S. giant Amazon in trialling drones.

Earlier this year, Manna began trialling using drones for takeaway including a trial with Supermacs in the Barack Obama Plaza in Moneygall.

The Irish company promises delivery in three minutes or less to ‘the local neighbourhood’ (within 2km).

During a web event hosted by Tesco, Mr Lewis said Manna have already proven the potential of drone deliveries; “The question is how do we take that capability and apply it to Tesco?” he said.

The supermarket group's innovation director Claire Lorains said the trial would focus on the delivery of just a few grocery items, such as forgotten recipe items, with deliveries made within 30 minutes to an hour of an order being made.

"We're really interested to see how drones could be part of the solution to deliver to our customer’s on-demand small baskets," she said, noting the small basket market in Britain was forecast to exceed 10 billion pounds ($13 billion) over the coming years.

"If our trial with Manna is successful, we really think there is an opportunity to reach many customers through our stores extending with a drones service," she said.

Lewis said Tesco had four innovation priority areas: food & drink products and technology; data; robotics and automation; and packaging.

Lewis, who last year declared the group's turnaround complete, is due to step down at the end of September and be replaced by Ken Murphy, formerly of healthcare group Walgreens Boots Alliance.

Additional reporting Reuters