Ocado drops £190m payment pursuit from M&S
Ocado is understood to have dropped its long-running pursuit of a £190 million payment from M&S following a dispute over their joint venture partnership.
M&S teamed up with Ocado in 2019 to create Ocado Retail, enabling M&S to offer an online food home delivery service. This included M&S making an upfront payment of £560 million for a 50% stake in Ocado Retail, with a final instalment of £190.7 million due, depending on the delivery of an undisclosed target in the year ending November 2023.
Subscribe to TRBHowever, as the joint venture failed to meet the required target, no payment has been made.
Ocado had previously said it would use “all available means” to secure the payment, claiming it had a strong negotiating position. In 2024, Ocado chief executive Tim Steiner told shareholders: “We are very confident we are owed a substantial sum of money.”
But sources have told The Times that both parties have backed away from the dispute, with no further payment being made.
A spokesperson for Ocado Retail said: “We continue to be the UK’s fastest growing grocer, and we were pleased to announce in last week’s final results that the business is now profitable across all key measures.
“We expect to build further on this momentum in the coming months by expanding order capacity for customers while maintain strong growth.
“Together with our joint venture partners at M&S, we remain focused on realising the significant potential of the Ocado Retail business.”
