French supermarket group Casino signed a deal with British online retailer Ocado. It will use the British infrastructure to help grow its own online shops.
Monoprix
It was included that Ocado will build a new distribution center for Casino in the north of France. At first, this will allow customers in and around Paris to get up to 50,000 products delivered at home. Orders can be placed at Monoprix.fr, one of Casino’s chains.
“This agreement 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 CEO, Jean-Charles Naouri, said.
It is also good news for Ocado: the company is one of the online grocery industry’s pioneers and has developed its own order system, among other things. Analysts have claimed for a while it needed to sign a major retailer to achieve real growth. It has now found that partner in Casino, after it had already signed a deal in the United Kingdom with supermarket chain Morrissons.
Early next year, Sweden’s largest supermarket chain, ICA, is also alleged to announced an Ocado collaboration. Swedish market.se claims to know this, but both companies have refused to comment on the revelation so far. ICA still employs a decentralized system, which required the franchisees’ willingness to collaborate. Ocado’s arrival could help streamline the entire process.
Ocado is currently trialing a self-driving delivery car, from which the customer has to retrieve his order. If everything oges well, it wants to sell that system to other retailers starting in 2019.
