How Ocado negotiated lockdown

Brian Carruthers

This article examines how online grocer Ocado reacted to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown.

For many years Ocado was virtually synonymous with Waitrose in the UK. So, it came as a bit of shock to many people when that almost-20-year relationship came to an end in September 2020. Quite a few people discovered that Ocado is actually a separate company: an online-only retailer that buys groceries from its partners and then delivers these to shoppers from its own warehouses. Once that partner was Waitrose, now it is Marks & Spencer (M&S). 

However, Ocado is more than just an online retailer. Ocado Group consists of Ocado Retail UK (which operates as a joint venture with...

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