Asda has agreed a deal with Ocado to use its technology for home deliveries from next year, giving Britain’s third-largest supermarket a new online engine as it tries to halt a slide in market share. The software will then be used in Asda’s deliveries from stores and dark stores from early 2027.
The arrangement also covers orders placed through Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat, as well as click and collect services through Asda’s website and apps. It does not include Ocado’s robot warehouses, which have become the best-known part of its business but are not part of this tie-up.
The move matters because Asda’s UK grocery share has fallen to 11.5% from 14.3% before the 2021 takeover, according to Kantar data, leaving it just above Aldi on 10.8%. That gap has sharpened the pressure on Asda’s owners, TDR Capital and Mohsin Issa, to find a way to compete more effectively with Aldi and Lidl while improving the experience for customers who are increasingly buying online.
Allan Leighton said the partnership would strengthen Asda’s online offer and give shoppers a more consistent experience from order to delivery. Tim Steiner said he was delighted Asda had chosen Ocado for the next phase of its online growth, arguing that technology, scale and continuous innovation matter more in a market as competitive as Britain’s.
For Ocado, the deal is a sharp reversal after years in which the business rarely made a profit and its shares had slumped from more than £27 to £2.08 before Friday’s announcement. The stock rose 9% on Friday morning after the news, a welcome lift for a group that had still been carrying the baggage of a share price that collapsed even after the pandemic drove demand for online grocery shopping higher.
The company, founded 26 years ago, now runs Ocado.com in Britain with Marks & Spencer and once handled deliveries for Waitrose. Its technology partnerships have also had mixed results elsewhere: Kroger has closed three warehouses using Ocado equipment, and Sobeys shut its Calgary facility two months later. That history makes the Asda agreement more than a simple contract win; it is a test of whether Ocado’s software can still persuade a major grocer that its systems are worth betting on.
What comes next is straightforward. Asda begins using Ocado’s technology for home deliveries next year, then expands it into store-based delivery and dark-store operations in early 2027. If the plan works, Asda gets a stronger online platform at a moment when its market position has been under pressure, and Ocado gets a fresh chance to prove that its technology can still move the needle for a major supermarket chain.
