Ocado is on the cusp of promotion to the FTSE 100 after it reached a potentially game-changing partnership with one of the world’s biggest grocers.
Shares in Ocado surged by almost 81% at one point yesterday to a record 997p, its biggest one-day rise, as investors cheered the tie-up with Kroger to identify sites for up to 20 automated warehouses across the US over the first three years of the deal.
The agreement was Ocado’s fourth international partnership in six months and should bring substantial sums from the world’s largest grocery market.
The FT adds that the market had expected a deal with a US company, to add to Ocado’s existing agreements to provide high-tech logistics to French supermarket chain Casino, Wm Morrison of the UK, Sobeys in Canada and ICA in Sweden.
But not on the scale of what was announced. Subject to a final agreement, in the coming three years Ocado will build 20 automated “customer fulfilment centres” across the US, to pick, pack and dispatch groceries ordered online.
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