Ocado Group adds tech big hitter to its board

Ocado Group has appointed Michael Sherman as an independent non-executive director.

Sherman currently serves as Chief Strategy & Transformation Officer at BT Group.

"I am delighted to welcome Michael to our board. He has extensive experience and skills in the technology sector, and I am confident his insight and expertise will be an invaluable asset to the board and our continued growth and development as a technology led software and robotics platform business," says Ocado Chair Stuart Rose.

Fare thee (not so) well

Late last month, Ocado’s Chief Executive Tim Steiner hit out at Waitrose as the two prepared to officially part ways, ending a 20 year relationship.

As of the beginning of September, Ocado is selling and delivering food from M&S rather than Waitrose. M&S splashed out £750 million last year to acquire a 50% stake in Ocado’s retail business. 

Steiner told The Sunday Times: “They [Waitrose] have done an advert saying ‘we’ll take it from here’ or something. Well, they can’t take it from here because they don’t have the technology, the infrastructure or the systems. To put it bluntly, they don’t understand the online market like we do.”

Check out the other side of the story here.

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