Ocado’s first international depot goes live in France

The CFC is located at Fleury-Mérogis, near Paris, and will be operating with what Ocado called “a small number of test orders”, which will be ramped up over the coming months.

At capacity, Ocado said the depot will be able to handle a turnover of €500m and serve customers across Paris and the nearby Hauts-de-France region for Casino Monoprix customers.

Monoprix has also launched a new ecommerce service with Ocado’s Smart Platform, called Monoprix Plus, which fulfilled its first delivery through the Fleury-Mérogis depot on March 18.

Chief executive of Ocado Solutions Luke Jensen said: “This is a huge milestone in the Ocado journey. Two years after breaking ground on the site, the CFC is live with Ocado’s unique, proprietary technology powering ecommerce for one of France’s most iconic grocery brands.

“As Casino’s CFC fulfils more customer orders and grows capacity over time, it will be instrumental in bringing Ocado.com’s award-winning quality of service and customer experience to Monoprix shoppers across Paris and Hauts-de-France.

“We recognise that this launch comes at an extraordinary time as grocery retailers around the world face a huge task in helping communities to confront the challenges of coronavirus (Covid-19). We pay tribute to the amazing response of Casino and all of our partners worldwide in providing vital services for their customers at this time.”

Ocado Solutions, the technology arm of the wider Ocado Group, said earlier in the year it would also be opening its first functional CFC with Canadian grocer Sobeys in the first half of 2020.