News and Trends

Namnews, 24th November 2022 Ocado has today expanded its rapid grocery delivery service Zoom outside of London, despite signs that the channel is experiencing weaker demand. The online grocer’s fourth Zoom site is based in Hunslet, Leeds. The purpose-built, automated warehouse contains 70 robots that pick and pack the products, while humans assemble the final orders ahead of delivery by electric vehicles, including e-trikes and e-mopeds. Ocado is predicting up to 10,000 orders per week from Leeds residents. “Ocado is famed for its world-leading technology, and we’re delighted to be bringing our rapid grocery app to the city of Leeds as our service expands outside of London,” said Zoom by Ocado Director, George Dean. The move comes amid reports that other rapid delivery firms are shedding riders and closing warehouses across the UK as the bubble bursts for ultra-quick grocery drop-off services. Some of the biggest names in the on-demand grocery sector, which persuaded investors during t...

Namnews, 24th October 2022 Marks & Spencer is looking at how it can “turbocharge” its Ocado food delivery operation as part of efforts to challenge its larger rivals in the grocery market. A report by the Financial Mail On Sunday said the retailer’s Chief Executive Stuart Machin is embarking on a wide-ranging review to improve the service and make the business more efficient. The overhaul is said to be part of a wider strategy to increase M&S’s share of food spending in the UK in stores and online by more than 25%. Hannah Gibson, the new CEO of the Ocado Retail joint venture is already leading the review just a month after her arrival. The newspaper report stated that she is drawing up plans to put more M&S ranges on the Ocado website to compete with the likes of Waitrose and Sainsbury’s. At present, 75% of the M&S food range is available from Ocado. The company is said to want to increase that closer to 100% in the coming months. Management is understood to be particul...

The Grocer, By  George Nott | 14 June 2021 Save article Source: Ocado Sales of French products on  Ocado .com have risen by a third this year, according to sales data shared by the  online  grocer. British consumers purchased 34% more French produce on the Ocado site from January to May this year compared with the same period last year. The data indicated Brits’ “increasing appetite for French cuisine, as hopes of a getaway across the Channel dwindle” Ocado said. Sales of alternative French sparkling wines rose 104%, while champagne sales increased 35%. Searches for crémant, a sparkling wine made outside the Champagne region, rose 139% year on year. French cooked  meat  products more than doubled in sales, increasing by 134% between the two periods, while demand for French cheeses went up 46%. Searches for charcuterie and cooked meats also increased, by 60% and 109% respectively. “With travel off the agenda for the best part of the last 18 mo...

  The Grocer, By  Daniel Woolfson 28 April 2021 2 min read Save article Source: Geary’s Bakery It has launched two ‘Straight Up’ sourdoughs and one ‘Twisted Sourdough’ into Ocado Geary’s Bakery has launched a mass of new SKUs into Asda and Ocado for its Jason’s Sourdough brand. The supplier – whose first branded range of loaves was  named The Grocer’s Top Launch  in the bakery category last year – has debuted three ‘Breads of the World’ into the Asda’s in-store bakeries. They are: New York Inspired, a classic white & rye sourdough with caraway seeds, Baltics Inspired, a white sourdough potato loaf with rosemary, and Italian Inspired Tear & Share, a flatbread combining sundried tomato and basil.  Meanwhile it has launched two ‘Straight Up’ sourdoughs and one ‘Twisted Sourdough’ into Ocado. The former – called The Great White and Majestic Malted – are pre-sliced and come in the “traditional artisan bread shape”, while the latter co...

  www.theguardian.com Delivery-based supermarket’s value rises to £21bn despite selling 1.7% of UK’s groceries Success for the firm has come on the back of Ocado Solutions, which sells its grocery-picking processes to overseas supermarkets. Photograph: Simon Newman/Reuters  Ocado has overtaken Tesco to become the UK’s most valuable retailer after its stock market value soared to £21.66bn. Tesco is worth £21.06bn despite controlling nearly 27% of the UK grocery market. By comparison Ocado, which is already worth more than double the combined value of Sainsbury’s and Morrisons , sells just 1.7% of the UK’s groceries. Former Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy once famously described Ocado as a “charity” due to its track record of losses during the noughties. Ocado has eclipsed Tesco just as the supermarket’s new chief executive, Ken Murphy , prepares to take charge on Thursday. He replaces Dave Lewis who has been running the UK’s biggest retailer since 2014. Murphy faces a baptism of ...

  Full article below via the Evening Standard. It’s only two weeks in however so there is undoubtedly a novelty factor involved in testing new products that weren’t previously available to Ocado customers. M&S ranges have also been heavily promoted on the Ocado homepage, as part of the campaign to raise awareness of the switch, so to my mind, it’s too early to call the longer term picture. Ocado: Shoppers are buying more M&S goods than Waitrose after food launch www.standard.co.uk More customers are buying Marks & Spencer’s products from Ocado than they bought Waitrose goods, the online grocer said today. Two weeks after launching their joint venture, Ocado said “the weighting of M&S...

  Namnews, 1st September 2020 Following months of build-up, M&S food started to be delivered by Ocado today. After M&S paid £750m for a 50% stake in Ocado’s retail division, the two companies have spent the past year preparing for the go-live date of the new service which replaces the online grocer’s tie-up with Waitrose. This has involved developing new products, preparing supply chain processes and providing thousands of data fields and photos for the website. M&S has developed 750 new products in time for the launch and worked to improve the competitiveness of its everyday grocery items. The Ocado site is now selling a range of 6,000 M&S food products and 800 M&S clothing and home lines. The previous Waitrose range spanned around 4,000 products. The expanded offering has increased Ocado’s full range to over 50,000 products, a figure it claims is double that of the next largest grocery retailer. Melanie Smith, Chief Executive of Ocado Retail, said: “This marks...

19th March 2020 Alongside a first-quarter trading update, Ocado Retail has given some insight into how the panic buying linked to the coronavirus is impacting its business. The online grocery retailer, which is now a joint venture between the Ocado Group and Marks & Spencer, saw a 10.3% uplift in revenue to £441.2m over the 13 weeks to 1 March. Average orders per week rose by 10.2% to 343,000, while the average order size edged up 0.3% to £110.24. The impact of the coronavirus was limited during the period.  However, the group confirmed that demand has picked up significantly in recent weeks with growth in the second quarter so far double that of the first. Ocado yesterday stopped accepting new orders after experiencing “a simply staggering amount of traffic” to its website and more demand for products and deliveries than it could meet. Existing customers with orders will still receive them. “This temporary closure will allow us to complete essential work that w...

Latest grocery market data from Kantar shows year-on-year supermarket rose 0.7% over the 12 weeks to 23 February, the fastest rate of growth since November last year.  The pick-up in performance will be welcomed across the sector after a difficult Christmas trading period. However, the traditional large grocers are still struggling to find a way to halt their declining market shares up against the fast-growing discounters. Sainsbury’s was the only one of the Big Four grocers to increase year-on-year sales, with spend up by 0.3% – its first growth since October 2019.  Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: “Sainsbury’s has performed well this period despite a challenging market, growing sales in its Sainsbury’s Local convenience stores as well as online.  It’s worth noting, however, that continued pressure from the discount retailers meant the retailer still lost market share this month.” Meanwhile, sales at Tesco and Asd...