Tesco launches drone delivery service for groceries in Galway

Tesco is to start trialling a drone delivery service in Oranmore, Co Galway, in partnership with Manna.

Your weekly shop could soon be taking to the skies as part of the first trial in Ireland of a grocery delivery service using drones. Tesco confirmed that the trial will take place at its Oranmore store in Co Galway and will initially run for several months.

The service was first revealed last month as part of a partnership with Dublin-based drone start-up Manna.

Customers can now order a delivery from Tesco by drone through a dedicated website, where an initial range of up to 700 products will be available. The order is picked by a Tesco employee and delivery is managed by a Manna drone supervisor.

How it works

Customers can then track their order in real time and have their purchases delivered within 30 minutes to one hour of ordering. Manna has promised a three-minute delivery time from when the items are loaded into the drone, and users will be alerted when it is one minute away.

“We’re really excited about this partnership and delighted that our store in Oranmore is involved in this trial,” said Catherine Swift, store manager of Tesco Oranmore.

“We’re continually looking for new ways to serve our customers a little better and this trial is an opportunity to look at meeting demand for small basket shops and quick delivery. We’re looking forward to seeing how our customers in the Oranmore area respond to the service.”

Manna operations director Denis Houston added: “It is incredible to work with an innovative partner like Tesco on this trial and to be able to provide this delivery service to the community of Oranmore. It’s fantastic to see how innovation and new technologies like this helps all the community, both customers and local retailers.”

In January, Manna announced a partnership with Irish telecoms business Cubic Telecom. The collaboration was aimed at launching a new high-speed food delivery service in the US and Europe.