Tesco bosses plan to trial delivery by DRONE so customers can get orders in minutes

Tesco is testing out drone deliveries to bring shopping to your home minutes after ordering. 

The plan is to deliver ‘top up’ shopping of a few items. Trials will begin next month, at a single store in Ireland. 

The pilot scheme by Britain’s biggest supermarket chain is being conducted with drone delivery start-up Manna. 

The air-drop will allow items to be despatched between 30 minutes and an hour after ordering. 

Chief executive Dave Lewis admitted the business has been too slow to embrace new technology and the online grocery revolution. 

He said: ‘Manna have already proven the capability, the question is how do we take that capability and apply it to Tesco.’ 

The race to get ahead in the online food market has been set alight by coronavirus which has doubled the size of the market. 

Tesco has taken on 16,000 staff and grown its delivery capacity to 1.2million orders per week. 

On Wednesday, Asda’s owner Walmart said it would run a pilot project for delivery of grocery and household products with drones.

They are locked in a battle with Amazon, which last month gained approval in the US to operate a fleet of delivery drones.

But there are concerns that regulations are too far behind for mass air travel, and questions over whether customers want their shopping flown into their back garden.

Alibaba, a leading retailer in China, which leads the world in online shopping and drones, has been deploying drones for five years.

The move from Tesco points to a similar scramble for technology.

Tesco said it has been working with tech entrepreneurs in London, San Francisco and Israel.

Tesco set up a new innovation team a year ago, focusing on food and drink, the Tesco Clubcard loyalty programme, robot, and greener packaging.

Last year bosses said they were designing their own automated warehouse technology to take on Ocado, which has just launched a new deal to deliver food from Marks & Spencer.