Sobeys Launches Online Home Delivery

Canadian grocer Sobeys will offer online home delivery with its new service Violà by Sobeys starting in the Greater Toronto Area in 2020. The service will expand to Ottawa and major cities in Quebec (under the Violà by IGA name) in 2021. 

Violà by Sobeys will offer up to 39,000 items and is powered by U.K.-based Ocado Group's online grocery engine. 

“We are building the most advanced e-commerce infrastructure in Canada. An online grocery home delivery experience like Voilà by Sobeys does not yet exist in Canada," said Sarah Joyce, SVP of ecommerce for Empire, Sobey's parent company. "While most players in the industry are focused on store pick models to fulfill their online orders, we are building automated warehouses specifically designed for best-in-class home delivery based on a highly successful model from the U.K. Voilà by Sobeys will deliver Canadians exactly what they want, when they want it, every time.”

The first of these automated Customer Fulfillment Centers (CFCs) is in Vaughn, Ontario, and will be completed in spring 2020. The second CFC location in Montreal will launch in 2021. Each CFC will create about1,500 jobs.

Progressive Grocer sister publication Canadian Grocer has more on Sobeys and automation in the Canadian grocery market.