Ocado bags deal with Groupe Casino

Ocado is to supply its Smart Platform technology to French supermarket chain Groupe Casino, starting with Monoprix.fr. The former says the agreement will involve “the construction of its latest generation, state-of-the-art automated warehouse,” as well as "front-end website functionality, last-mile routing management and big data, real-time implementation.”

Ocado CEO Tim Steiner says: “We believe that the scalable, modular end-to-end solutions provided by the Ocado Smart Platform, will allow retailers such as Groupe Casino to build their online grocery offer in a way that is profitable and sustainable, creating value for customers, suppliers and shareholders. We continue to make investments to commercialise our proprietary platform and expect this deal to be one of many successful collaborations with leading retailers to use it the world over."

Jean-Charles Naouri, CEO of Groupe Casino, comments: "The agreement will allow us to develop an integrated customer and logistics platform, considered the best in the market. It is a major leap in terms of quality: 50,000 food items will be offered in the first stage to customers in the Greater Paris area with precise and speedy delivery at home and through a platform which makes it achievable to do this profitably. Groupe Casino is very proud to have sealed this deal with Ocado which will further strengthen the quality of service available to its customers, at the core of its commitments for 120 years."

Ocado has been looking for some time now to become a provider of white label technology as well as a grocer in its own right. It announced in June that it had struck its first licensing agreement, with an unnamed European retailer. News of the Groupe Casino deal saw its shares  jump by more than 20% this morning.