LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Marks & Spencer (L:MKS) made the first deliveries through its new online food shopping joint venture with Ocado (L:OCDO) on Tuesday, though launch day was marred for a "very small number" of customers whose orders were cancelled.
The 1.5 billion pound Ocado Retail venture is a cornerstone of M&S's latest attempt to turn itself around and offset problems at its pandemic-hit clothing business.
"The M&S launch has been incredibly popular. We have seen a surge in demand for M&S products in the run up to launch which has impacted a very small number of orders today," said an Ocado spokeswoman.
"The vast majority of customers are unaffected and will be delivered as normal. We would like to thank our customers for giving M&S such a big welcome and sincere apologies to any customers having to wait a bit longer.”
M&S sees the new service as key to achieving its goal to double the size of its 6 billion pound food business.
The venture ends Ocado's long-running supply contract with upmarket chain Waitrose, part of the employee-owned John Lewis Partnership [JLPLC.UL], and will replace some 4,500 Waitrose products with the full M&S food range of 6,000 products and 800 everyday clothing and home lines.
On Friday Waitrose said it was teaming up with Deliveroo to trial fast home-delivery.
Online grocery shopping has doubled its share of the UK market to 14% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Ocado reckons it could reach 30% over the next few years.
