Amazon expands ultra-fast deliveries in UK and adds same-day fruit and veg

Deliveries in 30 minutes or less coming to Manchester and Birmingham and fresh groceries service to start in London

Amazon is expanding fast-track deliveries in the UK, including adding fresh fruit and vegetables to same-day services, after closing its standalone grocery stores .

The firm said it would expand Amazon Now, its ultra-fast delivery service that already delivers goods in less than 30 minutes to parts of London, to also serve Manchester and Birmingham this year.

It will also extend same-day delivery services to Ipswich and Coventry and enable shoppers in London to add fresh groceries to same-day deliveries, a service that has been trialled in the US.

Shoppers will be able to add fruit and vegetables, meat, poultry, seafood, dairy, bread, eggs and frozen foods to the same basket as other groceries in tins and packets as well as multiple other products from fashion to DIY kit.

The service will be available in parts of central and east London initially, with plans to expand to additional postcodes and more areas across the country in the coming months.

John Boumphrey, the UK country manager for Amazon, said: “We’re focused on making grocery shopping easier and faster for customers, with low prices on millions of items.”

He told the Guardian that the new home-delivery services would enable Amazon to “scale more broadly and faster” than the standalone stores, with grocery still “a category we want to play in”. Five of the 19 former Amazon Fresh stores are being turned into new Whole Foods outlets.