Ocado begins deliveries of M&S food
Ocado has begun making its first deliveries of M&S food to customers as part of its new joint venture with the retailer.
The two companies have spent the past 12 months preparing for the go-live date of the new service which replaces Ocado’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 also developed 750 new products in time for the launch.
Melanie Smith, chief executive of Ocado Retail, said: “This marks the culmination of over a year of hard work by everyone involved and I am so proud of everyone at Ocado Retail and our friends at M&S for such a collaborative partnership.
“We are excited to be bringing the greatest range of products to loyal and new customers across the UK with the winning combination of the country’s fastest growing grocer and the nation’s most beloved food brand. We know this is the start of something special and as shoppers continue to move online at pace, we look forward to what the future holds.”
The Ocado site will now sell a range of 6,000 M&S food products as well as 800 M&S everyday clothing and home lines. Customers will also be able to choose from Ocado’s range of over 50,000 products.
Stuart Machin, managing director of M&S Food, said taking M&S’s full food range online for the first time will be transformative for the retailer.
He added: “This is a long-term partnership and in preparation for go live we have listened intently to customers to deliver an even bigger, better range with more family pack sizes, more scratch cooking ingredients, household staples and organic options. As more families shop for M&S products online, they will see the breadth that M&S food has to offer and we’re confident they will find we remain serious on quality whilst also being serious about value.”
