Ocado and Morrisons have agreed in principle headline terms through which Morrisons will share some of the capacity of Ocado's customer fulfilment centre (CFC) currently under construction in Erith, south east London.
Ocado and Morrisons have agreed in principle headline terms through which Morrisons will share some of the capacity of Ocado's customer fulfilment centre (CFC) currently under construction in Erith, south east London.
Under the terms Ocado will also provide Morrisons with the software necessary to fulfil online orders from its stores, primarily intended to enable online services in areas not currently serviced by a CFC.
The parties are working on the detailed terms of the agreement but say that there can be no certainty an agreement will be reached.
The companies first entered into their agreement for online grocery fulfilment services in 2013, with Morrisons sharing the capacity of the Dordon CFC.
The Erith CFC is due to go-live at the end of 2017 and is expected to have capacity of 210,000 orders per week.
Tim Steiner, CEO of Ocado, said: 'We are delighted to have reached an in principle agreement with Morrisons. This is a win-win arrangement which allows both of us to grow faster, and more profitably, in a grocery market where channel shift is now an unquestionable reality.”
He continued: 'This potential deal demonstrates Ocado has the technology and know-how to help partners grow their online businesses rapidly and successfully, and take advantage of consumers' increasing desire for the convenience, choice, quality and value offered by online shopping and enabled by the Ocado Smart Platform'.