REG - Ocado Group PLC - Kroger roll out of new technology enhancements

OcadoAnnouncement

22/07/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 1838X  Ocado Group PLC  22 July 2024

22 July 2024

 

Ocado Group plc ("Ocado")

 

Ocado and Kroger to roll out new technology enhancements across CFCs

 

Ocado Group ("Ocado") has announced a significant development of its
partnership with Kroger, a leading US grocery retailer. Kroger has placed an
order for a wide range of new automated technologies to roll out in Customer
Fulfilment Centres (CFCs) across its network.

 

Kroger will implement Ocado's latest 'Re:imagined' technologies across
multiple CFCs in its live network, as well as future CFCs. The technologies
include proprietary Ocado innovations such as On-Grid Robotic Pick (OGRP) and
Automated Frameload (AFL), which will bring new levels of efficiency and
labour productivity to the Kroger Delivery network. These innovations will
enable Kroger to further drive down their cost to serve from CFCs, and enhance
an already market-leading customer proposition.

 

Ocado's global partners are upgrading their distribution networks with Ocado's
latest technologies, with AEON in Japan recently announcing it will also
retrofit Ocado's On-Grid Robotic Pick technology into its existing operations.
This technology is already rolling out in UK CFCs, where it is picking an
increasingly wide range of items. At full capacity, OGRP is expected to pick
more than 70% of an extensive online grocery range.

 

Tim Steiner, CEO of Ocado Group, said:

 

"We are delivering a step-change in warehouse automation and new levels of
efficiency to our partners as global supply chains are under significant
pressure to manage higher volumes and greater complexity, as well as
challenges in labour cost and availability.

 

Today marks another exciting milestone in our partnership with Kroger. Our
current CFCs are already helping to deliver a game-changing quality of service
to their customers across the USA. We are excited for these latest
technologies to further enhance that proposition, as well as the efficiency of
Kroger's operations in live and future CFCs."

 

Contacts:

 

●    Tim Steiner, Chief Executive Officer on +44 1707 228 000

●    Stephen Daintith, Chief Financial Officer on +44 1707 228 000

●    Nick Coulter, Head of Investor Relations on +44 1707 228 000

●    Jamie Kerr, Head of Communications on +44 1707 228 000

●    Lucy Legh, Headland Consultancy - ocadogroup@headlandconsultancy.com
(mailto:ocadogroup@headlandconsultancy.com) on +44 (0) 20 3805 4822

 

Notes to Editors

 

About On-Grid Robotic Pick

 

On-Grid Robotic Pick (OGRP) is a robotic arm that is installed directly on the
grid. The bots operating on the grid deposit stock next to the robot arms to
be packed into customer bags. Ocado's retail partners can stock up to 50,000
different products each. Robot arms need to be able to deal with a huge amount
of variety of weight, size, shape, surface, fragility and packaging.

 

Advanced machine vision, deep reinforcement learning, and sensing capabilities
enable OGRP to pick tens of thousands of products and pack them densely into
bags with precision and accuracy.

 

About Automated Frameload

 

Automated Frameload (AFL) automates the most physically demanding job in the
warehouse - the loading of prepared customer orders onto delivery frames ready
for dispatch. AFL enables the efficient and accurate loading of delivery totes
without human touch.

 

Computer vision examines the tote and the frame, forms an understanding of the
dimensions and shape of the tote and enables alignment with the frame, making
direction adjustments in real time to push the tote in.

 

About Ocado Group

 

Ocado Group is a UK based technology company trading on the London Stock
Exchange

(Ticker OCDO). It provides end-to-end online grocery fulfilment solutions to
thirteen of the

world's largest grocery retailers and holds a 50% share of Ocado Retail Ltd in
the UK in a Joint Venture with Marks & Spencer. Ocado has spent two
decades innovating for grocery online, investing in a wide technology estate
that includes robotics, AI & machine learning, simulation, forecasting,
and edge intelligence.

 

 

Person responsible for arranging the release of this announcement:

 

Neill Abrams

Group General Counsel and Company Secretary

Ocado Group plc

Buildings One & Two, Trident Place, Mosquito Way,

Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL10 9UL

email: company.secretary@ocado.com

Ocado Group plc LEI: 213800LO8F61YB8MBC74

 

 

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