Ocado explores accelerating M&S product transition

The etailer’s chief financial officer Duncan Tatton-Brown said “there is a chance” that Ocado will be able to stock M&S products online before the existing September 2020 switchover date, but said any such move would require the consent of Waitrose.

“There is a chance that [transition date] may come forward, but we have a contractual arrangement with Waitrose – so that would require all three parties to agree to that. It’s not in our gift to make it happen on our own.”

Tatton-Brown wouldn’t give a new transition date when pressed, and said it was “a possibility, rather than a probability”.

“Because it related to an agreement, a new transition could be any date [between now and September 2020]. Our expectation is that’ll be in September. It may be in the interests of Waitrose, and Waitrose suppliers, and our sales team and M&S, for that transition to be slightly spread out. But that would only be if all was agreed by all parties and there is no such agreement in place today”.

While he didn’t commit to a new date for the transition, Tatton-Brown said Ocado and M&S staff have been working together since before the formal launch of the joint venture.

He said the single biggest project being worked on at the moment was around filling any gaps between M&S’ range and that of Waitrose.

“There’s a lot of work under way between ourselves and the M&S sourcing team. M&S are going to be very busy on that over the next 12 months,” he said. “The food teams have been working together prior to the formal launch of the joint venture. The biggest area, the single biggest project if you like, is looking at the range in the M&S estate.

“It’s not a significant number of products on the 50,000 that need work, but it’s obviously very important for us, because we want all Ocado customers to get at least the same choice as they do today and, over time, even better.”

A Waitrose spokeswoman said: “Our contract [with Ocado] runs until September 2020.”