M&S expands food range in run-up to Ocado launch
M&S has expanded its food range with hundreds of new products in the run-up to the launch of its new grocery partnership with Ocado.
Customers can now view the full range of items that will be available to buy on the Ocado site when delivery slots from 1 September become available. New products have also landed in M&S stores ahead of the launch.
Stuart Machin, managing director of M&S Food, said he has written to customers to tell them that the full M&S Food range of over 6,000 products will be available for home delivery on Ocado from the beginning of next month.
M&S items will replace Waitrose products on Ocado when the new service kicks in. The retailer said its team of buyers and product developers have been carrying out a product matching exercise against 4,000 Waitrose products on the site and have also identified opportunities to create new products and find any gaps.
Many of the new products will come in bigger family pack sizes. There will also be a wider range of grocery and household cleaning products as well as more organic items. In addition, M&S will be expanding its range of fresh meat and produce.
Machin said: “One year ago today, we began the joint venture with Ocado so that customers can access the full range of delicious, great quality M&S Food products online. The team has worked really hard to make this happen and from today, customers can view the existing range of M&S products on the Ocado website as well as hundreds of new ones. Our customers can be confident that they will enjoy even better choice and even better value, whether they are shopping in-store or online.”
M&S said the huge growth in demand for online food shopping during the Covid-19 pandemic may mean that some customers may initially find it difficult to secure a delivery slot.
It added: “As demand eases, more slots should start to become available, so more customers can start to enjoy the brilliant combination of M&S’ great quality and value food and Ocado’s market-leading service.”
