Sainsbury’s has announced that it is extending its one-hour ‘Chop Chop’ delivery service to reach over 1.7 million potential customers across London’s Zone 1 and 2.

The group was the first supermarket in the UK to launch a one-hour grocery delivery service when it began trialling Chop Chop from its Pimlico and Wandsworth stores last year. Sainsbury’s is now adding over 70,000 more postcodes to the service catchment area, giving it the “largest reach of UK retailers offering a one-hour delivery service”.

The rapid delivery of products has become the latest battleground for retailers in the fight to win customers. Amazon launched its ‘Prime Now’ service back in 2015, whilst Tesco began rolling out a one-hour delivery service in central London earlier this year by linking up with third-party fulfilment specialist Quiqup.

Sainsbury’s Chop Chop service enables customers to order up to 25 items via a smartphone app, and have them delivered by bicycle or moped within one-hour, for a flat fee of £4.99. The retailer said that since its launch last year, the service has proved particularly popular with customers looking to purchase weekend brunch ingredients and baby emergency products as well as ‘dinner for tonight’ items and post party celebration remedies.

Clodagh Moriarty, Director of Online at Sainsbury’s commented, “We’re delighted the trial of our Chop Chop delivery service in Wandsworth and Pimlico has proven to be such a success.

“We were the first UK supermarket to introduce one-hour delivery last year and this roll-out will give us the largest reach to shoppers across London. It’s an exciting time for our customers and we hope to see continued success of Chop Chop within these new boroughs.”

Chop Chop is now available in all or parts of: Barnet, Brent, Camden, City of London, Ealing, Hackney, Hammersmith & Fulham, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea, Lambeth, Merton, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth and Westminster.