Ocado Group plc ( ) is a British business based in Hatfield, England, which licenses grocery technology. It also owns a 50% share in the UK grocery retail business Ocado.com (the other 50% is owned by UK retailer

Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks & Sparks or simply Marks) is a major British multinational retailer based in London, England, that specialises in selling clothing, beauty products, home produc ...

). The company is listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

and is a constituent of the

FTSE 250 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 250 Index, also called the FTSE 250 Index, FTSE 250, or, informally, the "Footsie 250" , is a stock market index that consists of the 101st to the 350th mid-cap blue chip companies listed on the London Stock ...

History

Ocado was established by Jonathan Faiman, Jason Gissing and Tim Steiner, former

merchant banker A merchant bank is historically a bank dealing in commercial loans and investment. In modern British usage, it is the same as an investment bank. Merchant banks were the first modern banks and evolved from medieval merchants who traded in commod ...

s with

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

, as L. M. Solutions, in January 2000. Ocado started trading as a business in partnership with

Waitrose Waitrose Limited, trading as Waitrose & Partners, is a British supermarket chain, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. In 1937, it was acquired by the John Lewis Partnership, the UK's largest employee-owned b ...

, part of the

John Lewis Partnership John Lewis Partnership plc (JLP) is a British company that operates John Lewis & Partners department stores, Waitrose supermarkets, financial services and a build to rent operation. The public limited company is owned by a trust on behalf o ...

, in January 2002. In September 2006,

Michael Grade Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth (born 8 March 1943) is an English Media proprietor, television executive and businessman. He has held a number of senior roles in television, including controller of BBC1 (1984–1986), chief executive ...

became non-executive chairman of Ocado. In November 2008, the

transferred its shareholding of 29% into its staff pension fund. In May 2010 the John Lewis Partnership entered into a 10-year branding and supply agreement with Ocado. In February 2011, the John Lewis pension fund sold off its entire Ocado shareholding. On 13 July 2009, Ocado released its first app for the

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

. The app, called 'Ocado on the Go', allows users to do their grocery shopping without the need for a PC. On 19 April 2010, the company extended the app to

Android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...

devices. In July 2010, Ocado undertook a stock market

Initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

. In January 2014, Ocado started providing website, warehousing and delivery services for one of their main grocery rivals,

Morrisons Wm Morrison Supermarkets Limited, trading as Morrisons, is the List of supermarket chains in the United Kingdom, fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Sco ...

supermarkets, allowing them to operate online using Ocado's network of depots to deliver Morrisons groceries to online customers. On 14 June 2014, the company changed its name from L. M. Solutions to Ocado Retail. In 2015, Ocado launched the Ocado Smart Platform, its proprietary end-to-end solution for operating retail businesses online. The company went on to sell the platform to the French

Casino Group Casino Group or Casino Guichard-Perrachon is a French mass-market retail group. It was founded on 2 August 1898 by Geoffroy Guichard under the corporate name Guichard-Perrachon & Co. Casino Group is the source of many innovations, such as the ...

in November 2017, to the Canadian supermarket chain

Sobeys Sobeys Inc. is a national supermarket chain in Canada with over 1,500 stores operating under a variety of banners. Headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, it operates stores in all ten provinces and accumulated sales of more than C$25.1 bil ...

in January 2018, to the US retail company

Kroger The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cinc ...

in May 2018, and to the Australian retail business

Coles Group Coles Group Limited is an Australian public company operating several retail chains. Its chief operations are primarily concerned with the sale of food and groceries through its flagship supermarket chain Coles Supermarkets, and the sale of li ...

in May 2020. In the early morning of 5 February 2019, Ocado's customer fulfilment centre (CFC) in

Andover, Hampshire Andover ( ) is a town in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. The town is on the River Anton, a major tributary of the River Test, Test, and lies alongside the major A303 road, A303 trunk road at the eastern end of Salisbury Plain, ...

, which handles 10 per cent of its fulfilments, caught fire. The fire continued to burn the following day, engaging more than 25 fire engines and 300 firefighters from multiple fire services, as far as Kent. A 500-metre exclusion zone was set up and residents as far as away were to be evacuated as a precaution. The fire burned for more than 3 days, with the roof collapsing in the process. The fire was found to have started due a fault in a battery charging unit, and was exacerbated by worker responses. The warehouse was rebuilt, and was operational by August 2021. On 27 February 2019, Ocado and

announced a joint venture, whereby Marks & Spencer agreed to pay £750M for a 50% share in Ocado's UK retail business, Ocado.com. Part of the amount to be paid by M&S depended on the performance of the joint venture in the years up to and including 2023. Ocado ceased selling

own brand OWN may also refer to: *Old West Norse, a North Germanic language *'' Once Was Not'' (2005), an album by Cryptopsy * One Warrior Nation, what The Ultimate Warrior calls his fans *Oprah Winfrey Network, a U.S.-based cable and satellite television c ...

groceries from the Waitrose supermarket chain in September 2020.

Activities

The company licenses Ocado Smart Platform, a proprietary solution for operating retail businesses online. It also owns a 50% share in the UK retail business, Ocado.com (the other 50% is owned by UK retailer

). In 2023, the retail business accounted for around 90% of group revenue. Since 2014, Ocado has supported

Code For Life Code for Life is a British-based not-for-profit platform that provides free educational resources which teach children how to code in the classroom, or at home. ''Rapid Router'' is Code for Life's browser-based shopping delivery game developed f ...

, a not-for-profit organisation which helps children learn computer programming.

Animal Welfare

Ocado, along with

and other supermarkets, has phased out the practice of shrimps

eyestalk ablation Eyestalk ablation is the removal of one (unilateral) or both (bilateral) eyestalks from a crustacean. It is routinely practiced on female shrimps (or female prawns) in almost every marine shrimp maturation or reproduction facility in the world, ...

within its supply chain.

Name

Jez Frampton, CEO of Interbrand and non-executive director of Ocado, claims the name "Ocado" is "a made-up word, intended to evoke fresh fruit". Neil Taylor, an Interbrand consultant, stated that the name was derived from ''

avocado The avocado, alligator pear or avocado pear (''Persea americana'') is an evergreen tree in the laurel family (Lauraceae). It is native to Americas, the Americas and was first domesticated in Mesoamerica more than 5,000 years ago. It was priz ...

''.Mark Kleinman on marketing and the City: Can Ocado deliver more?
Brand Republic, 22 September 2009

References

External links

* {{FTSE 250 Index constituents 2002 establishments in the United Kingdom John Lewis Partnership Online grocers Online retailers of the United Kingdom Retail companies established in 2002 Companies based in Welwyn Hatfield Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange 2010 initial public offerings Companies in the FTSE 250 Index