<p>Statements made by Doug Gurr, Vice President of Amazon UK, strongly suggest that the non-traditional retail giant is planning to expand its AmazonFresh grocery delivery program worldwide.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><img class="small-cropped-image" src="https://cdn.andnowuknow.com/legacySmallCroppedImages/douglas_gurr.jpg" alt=" AmazonFresh Planning Global Expansion" /></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>During the 2014 City Food Lecture in London, Doug Gurr was among a panel of speakers and fielded questions from the audience.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">When the panel was asked by an English fruit grower about alternatives in the supply chain, Gurr responded by strongly hinting that a global expansion of AmazonFresh is in the works:<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"We do have an operation that was originally in Seattle, AmazonFresh, which absolutely is a full-service, frozen/chilled/ambient supply chain, and delivers direct to customers."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"We've just started the process of rolling that out across America. It's now available on the West Coast."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"This is not a forward statement of plans, because we don't make those."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"But if you look at the history of what Amazon tends to do... Our model has tended to be: we'll take something, we'll try really hard to make it work, once we think we've got it working, we'll start rolling it. So, the fresh supply chain, which is a really hard supply chain to get right... It's absolutely taken us a long time... we've been running this operation for 7 or 8 years in Seattle before we even went outside one city. However, we now believe we've got it right enough for customers, right enough for growers like yourself that we can actually maintain quality that we're rolling it across North America... And as I say, history would suggest that once we've started rolling things across North America, it is then typically followed by an international expansion, history would suggest."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Doug Gurr also talked about the changing face of retail in general:<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"We're a retailer… all we do is connect the wonderful products and wonderful food you produce with the customers who are interested in consuming them. That's all we do.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">And I think in a sense what you're seeing here is really very simple. There's been a lengthy period since let's say the 1950s until relatively recently in which there's been a very clear winning way in which customers have wanted to connect with the food they eat. And that's changing. It's disruptive... of course change is never easy. But you know this is a change which we've seen many many times before and I'm sure we'll see more in the future. I think the way you best navigate that change is you in very simple terms say, if we're producing fabulous food, and we believe there's a market for that food, which there will be, then all we really need to do is... let's just work out the easiest way to get it to the customers. Just right now that happens to be different than it was for the past 50 years."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Clearly these statements indicate that AmazonFresh is planning nation-wide expansion. While Gurr was careful to say that he was not making a forward statement of plans, his answer clearly suggests worldwide expansion is part of Amazon's strategy.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">AmazonFresh is a full-service grocery delivery service which is currently only available in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.cityfoodlecture.glasgows.co.uk/2014/" target="_new"> City Food Lecture 2014 </a><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="https://fresh.amazon.com/welcome" target="_new"> AmazonFresh </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
