Ocado has revealed it will be providing its Ocado Smart Platform to the French grocer Groupe Casino.
The long-awaited announcement stated the deal will involve the construction of an automated warehouse, as well as Ocado’s front-end website, last-mile route management and real-time implementation.
The new warehouse, which is expected to take two years to build, will feature Ocado’s robotic grocery picking technology and will serve the Greater Paris area, the Normandie and Hauts de France Region. Other fulfilment centres may be considered further down the line which will serve other large urban areas in the region.
The French grocer will begin by applying the Ocado Smart Platform to its Monoprix.fr website.
"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
“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."
Tim Steiner, CEO of Ocado, added: "We are delighted that Groupe Casino has decided to partner with Ocado Solutions to grow and develop its online food business. 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."
Ocado said the financial impact of the deal will incur in 2019 and beyond as the solutions part of the business is “likely to grow as the fees from the transaction increase and as other deals are signed”.
