Ocado to partner with Spanish grocer Alcampo

Ocado has outlined a new agreement with Auchan Retail, which will see Ocado Solutions develop the online business of Alcampo, a Spanish grocer, using the Ocado Smart Platform.

Auchan Retail, one of the world’s largest grocery retailers, operates the Alcampo brand in Spain through a network of 310 stores, including 62 hypermarkets and 248 supermarkets and convenience stores, of which 135 are franchises. The brand’s revenue totalled €4.5bn (£3.9bn) in 2020.

Under the new agreement, Ocado and Alcampo will initially build a Customer Fulfilment Centre to serve the Madrid region from 2024, with additional centres to be announced in the future. 

In addition, Alcampo will leverage Ocado’s In-Store Fulfilment software across its hypermarkets nationwide, an agreement which will cover both Alcampo’s food and non-food business.

Alongside physical fulfilment solutions, Ocado will also provide Alcampo with OSP’s end-to-end software platform as well as a comprehensive suite of engineering and support services to ensure the “smooth launch” and ongoing development of its ecommerce operations.

Alcampo 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.

Following this partnership, Ocado and Auchan Retail, which has 180,000 employees, €32bn (£27bn) revenue, and operations across 13 countries, will explore the potential to extend the partnership into other geographies.

Tim Steiner, CEO of Ocado Group, said: “I’m delighted to welcome Auchan Retail to the innovative and forward-looking group of food retailers around the world who will be powering their ecommerce operations with the Ocado Smart Platform.

“The appetite for our unique end-to-end platform remains strong as retailers look to take advantage of the channel shift which is now redrawing the landscape of the global grocery market. Our partnership with Alcampo will bring the very best online grocery experience to customers in another major retail market, with proven and sustainable economics. We look forward to helping Alcampo change the way customers shop in Spain, for good.”

Luke Jensen, CEO of Ocado Solutions, said: “Auchan Retail is one of the world’s leading grocery retailers, with strong brands and deep connections to customers across multiple global markets.

“Spain is primed for significant growth in online grocery sales in the coming years, and as we are proving with partners across international markets who we have successfully helped go-live, Ocado’s technology enables a genuinely world-leading customer proposition online at a time when more shoppers are coming to the channel than ever. We can’t wait to bring this offer to Alcampo, and enable them to become a market leader online in Spain.”