The new service, which is a first for Samsung globally, will facilitate an end-to-end contactless experience for Samsung customers from their initial online order through the company’s Irish eStore, right through to fulfillment. The service will first be made available to customers based in Oranmore with Samsung and Manna keen to expand this service nationwide in the future.

Manna uses custom-developed aerospace grade drones to deliver products directly to customer's homes.  Their drones fly at an altitude of 50-80 metres and a speed of over 60kph - enabling delivery to homes in Oranmore within 3 minutes.

Commenting on the news, Eamonn Grant, Head of Online for Samsung Ireland said, “At Samsung we are always looking for ways to bring meaningful innovation to our customers so we’re really excited to be the first technology company in Ireland to make our products available to our customers via drone delivery.  To be able to deliver our products to our customers within three minutes of leaving the dispatch centre is a brilliant example of innovation in motion. Superior customer experience is at the heart of what we do and with this new service we are embracing what we believe will be the future of retail. In the current environment, there is no better time to provide a contactless alternative to ‘click and collect’ and we are really thrilled to be partnering Manna to achieve this.”

“This partnership with Samsung marks the first of its kind in the world. To date, we have been working with Tesco and local businesses to deliver grocery, hot food, books and pharmacy items, to people in the area.  We recognise that the potential for the application of drone delivery is enormous. Samsung is one of the most innovative and widely recognised brands globally that always puts its customers front and centre. It’s for this reason we are genuinely excited to be embarking on this next chapter with them,” said Alan Hicks, CTO of Manna.

The drone delivery option will be available to Oranmore-based customers who purchase a Galaxy device via Samsung.com/ie from today.