REG - Ocado Group PLC - Statement regarding Casino partnership

OcadoAnnouncement

17/02/2022 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20220217:nRSQ9335Ba&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 9335B  Ocado Group PLC  17 February 2022

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION

Ocado Group plc

17 February 2022

OCADO GROUP PLC

GROUPE CASINO

Ocado Group and Groupe Casino announce the signing of an MOU to extend their
unique partnership in France. This extension includes:

●      The creation of a JV to provide logistics services to
OSP-powered CFCs in France, which will be available to all grocery retailers

●      A partnership for Ocado to integrate Octopia's marketplace
platform into OSP and allow OSP partners around the world to launch their own
marketplace offering (Octopia is a subsidiary of Cdiscount)

●      Groupe Casino to deploy Ocado's In-Store Fulfilment solution
across its Monoprix store estate

Ocado Group ("Ocado") and Groupe Casino today announce the signing of a
Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") to extend their partnership. This
extension will see the creation of a new exclusive Joint Venture ("JV") to
support the development and management of single or multi-tenanted CFCs in
France.

Underpinned by the success of their partnership and expanding operations in
Ile-de-France, Ocado and Groupe Casino believe there is significant and
growing demand for online grocery services across the French market, creating
a huge opportunity to leverage their combined expertise, including Ocado's UK
experience providing multi-retailer CFCs.

The Joint Venture will draw on the combined strengths of Ocado and Groupe
Casino to provide logistics services for future CFCs. These services include
project management for CFC construction and set-up, as well as the recruitment
and operations management of personnel.

Alongside the JV, Ocado Solutions will offer its world-leading automated
fulfilment and software solutions to all grocery retailers in the French
market, with OSP capacity in the future CFCs available to multiple grocery
retailers, including Groupe Casino itself. Future CFCs will also benefit from
the latest range of innovations announced by Ocado.

Once finalised, the JV is not expected to impact the current live operations
of the partnership between Ocado and Groupe Casino.

Alongside the creation of the new JV, Groupe Casino will shortly expand its
deployment of Ocado's solutions to include the use of Ocado's In-Store
Fulfilment software across the Monoprix store estate.

Additionally, Ocado will integrate Octopia, the world-class marketplace
platform launched by Cdiscount into the Ocado Smart Platform, bringing new
flexibility and functionality to its global partners. The agreement between
Ocado and Cdiscount also provides a preferential option for Ocado to buy
Octopia shares in the event of future fundraising. This commercial partnership
will support the development of Octopia and Cdiscount's strategy of expanding
its B2B businesses.

Expected financial impact

There is not expected to be any initial capital cost associated with the JV to
either Ocado Group or Groupe Casino. CFC-related capital costs typically
associated with OSP partners will be funded in future CFCs by tenant grocery
retailers in line with their capacity commitments.

Tim Steiner, CEO of Ocado Group, said:

 

"The online grocery channel in France has reached an inflection point, with a
huge rise in demand for compelling, affordable and efficient grocery ecommerce
propositions. Our growing partnership and live operations in Ile-de-France
have set the highest bar for the experience French consumers can expect in
online grocery."

 

"This announcement marks a deepening of the relationship between Groupe Casino
and Ocado Group, and it will further support the capital light expansion of
our partnership into other French regions. For the first time, it will also
open up the whole of the French grocery market to Ocado's solutions."

 

"Additionally, by integrating the Octopia marketplace into our end-to-end
smart platform, we are bringing more proven, market-leading flexibility to our
partners' online ecosystems."

Jean-Charles Naouri, Groupe Casino, said:

"Casino Group is pleased to announce this new agreement with Ocado Group. This
partnership illustrates our ability to once again revolutionize the way of
disrupting the online grocery market.

After having experienced the success of the Ocado solution with Monoprix Plus,
Casino Plus and Naturalia Marché Bio, the French consumers will be able to
benefit from new, even more efficient e-commerce services, making their daily
needs even easier.

Casino Group is very proud that Ocado chooses Octopia for its marketplace
solution recognizing its word-class functionality."

Contacts

 OCADO

●    Tim Steiner, Chief Executive Officer, on 01707 228 000

●    Stephen Daintith, Chief Financial Officer, on 01707 228 000

●    David Shriver, Director of Communications, on 01707 228 000

●    Martin Robinson at Tulchan Communications, on 020 7353 4200

 

GROUPE CASINO

●    Media: Stéphanie Abadie on +33 (0)6 26 27 37 05
(sabadie@groupe-casino.fr)

●    Investor Relations: Lionel Benchimol on +33 (0)1 53 65 64 17
(lbenchimol@groupe-casino.fr)

 

The person responsible for arranging the release of this announcement is:

Neill Abrams

Group General Counsel and Company Secretary

Ocado Group plc

Buildings One & Two Trident Place

Mosquito Way

Hatfield

Hertfordshire

AL10 9UL

Tel: +44 (0)1707 228 000

Email: company.secretary@ocado.com

Ocado Group plc LEI: 213800LO8F61YB8MBC74

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  STRSFAEEMEESEEE