Ocado - the 'American problem' that won't go away for Ocado, but US retailers have a big capacity problem of their own
The US was to be Ocado’s land of opportunity. A mega-deal with US grocery chain Kroger signed in 2018 saw Ocado set to deliver up to 20 of its automated Customer Fulfilment Centers (CFCs) across the country, with the US giant as the exclusive grocery partner for the UK firm.
But around this time last year, Kroger was openly admitting that its e-commerce operations were not profitable and that it was putting its entire strategy under review. This came around 18 months after the firm put the brakes on further rollout of Ocado CFCs until it could see a way to make money out of the eight out of the planned 20 it had opened to date.
But that clarity of vision never came and by November last year, not only was further rollout on hold, but four of the eight that had opened were to be closed down....
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