Ocado partner Sobeys to close Alberta warehouse
Ocado Group has announced that its Canadian partner Sobeys is to close its customer fulfilment centre in Calgary following an assessment of ecommerce demand in key markets.
The group said the decision was a result of the Alberta grocery ecommerce market’s size and rate of expansion being slower than originally anticipated.
Subscribe to TRBWith the closure expected to reduce Ocado’s fee revenue by £7 million in FY26, the company expects to receive compensation £18 million during the current financial year.
Sobeys will continue serving customers in Ontario and Quebec through its Ocado-enabled Voilà banner, supported by two existing facilities in the Greater Toronto and Montreal areas.
Ocado will be deploying new technology across these operations, including the introduction of Ocado Swift Router which has been designed to increase the proportion of same-day and short lead-time orders fulfilled from CFCs. This also includes the option for Ocado-fulfilled orders to be integrated with third party platforms, such as online aggregators.
As previously announced, Ocado and Sobeys will continue to pause the development of a CFC in the Vancouver area with the go-live timeline remaining under regular review.
Sobeys will continue to use Ocado’s AI-powered in store fulfilment software across 87 stores nationwide.
Tim Steiner, chief executive of Ocado Group, said: “Sobeys is an important partner to Ocado, and we have taken a pragmatic approach to refining the network and placing our partnership on the right footing to secure long-term, sustainable growth in the Canadian market.
“This has meant addressing some key challenges from early network planning decisions, in particular where the market has not developed as anticipated. It has also led to agreement on deepening our partnership in key markets”
“Online grocery in North America has continued to develop, and Ocado’s technology has evolved significantly since our first CFCs were launched in the region.
“The changes we have made in our relationships with both Sobeys and Kroger represent a reset of our North American business, placing those partnerships in the best position to secure long-term growth, while reopening a substantial market for Ocado’s much evolved technology.”
