Ocado links with Auchan Poland on delivery solutions for hypermarkets

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Mar 15, 2022

Ocado has announced a partnership between its Ocado Solutions unit and Auchan Retail Poland to develop the latter’s online business using the Ocado Smart Platform (OSP). It’s the second Auchan business to link up with Ocado Solutions.

Ocado is best known for its online food delivery and for its groundbreaking deal with the UK’s M&S that gave the British retail giant instant access to a food home delivery service.

But it’s significant that the Auchan deal covers the Polish retailer's hypermarkets and takes in both foods and non-foods.

Auchan Poland and Ocado will initially build a Customer Fulfilment Centre (CFC) to serve the Warsaw region, beginning in 2024, with additional CFCs to be announced at future dates. Auchan will also leverage Ocado's In-Store Fulfilment (ISF) software across its hypermarkets nationwide “to enable more efficient picking from those stores”. 

Ocado will deploy its full force of robots and other technology to “ensure the smooth launch and ongoing development of [the retailer’s] e-commerce operations”.

The structure of fees agreed are similar to those operating with other international partners. Auchan will pay Ocado certain fees upfront and during the development phase, then ongoing fees linked to both sales achieved and installed capacity within the CFC and service criteria.

And the two are also exploring “the potential to further develop [their] relationship with partnerships in other geographies”.