Ocado’s losses deepened by 37 per cent amid tensions with ‘unhappy’ Marks & Spencer

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The numbers came as part of a half-year update from Ocado, which in addition to selling groceries with M&S is developing robotic warehouse technology for other retailers. Overall losses widened by 37 per cent to £290m for the first half of the financial year to the end of May.

In an effort to boost sales, M&S has recently been pushing for closer collaborations, including adding more of its products on Ocado’s website and launching them at the same time they hit their stores. M&S executives are keen to announce more of their products higher up on the Ocado homepage.

Management at the online grocery store, meanwhile, aims to add all M&S products, with the exception of prepared foods such as sandwiches, to the website as quickly as possible.

It followed a period when Ocado management appeared to “lose focus” on M&S products, said Clive Black, an analyst at Shore Capital. He said, “There was a lot of exposure and awareness of the Waitrose brand on Ocado, and I think there was probably understandable frustration at M&S ​​about why its food and products weren’t significantly pushed.”

Earlier this month, M&S CEO Stuart Machin told investors that progress has been made on its portfolio of products sold on Ocado, with more than 700 of its products being added to Ocado in the past few months.

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