Ocado up on upgrade and acquisitions

The price of shares in FTSE 100 grocery delivery specialist Ocado (LON:OCDO) climbed by 7.56% to 2,448.16p (as of 14:40 BST) after the firm upgraded its EBITDA guidance for the current year. The partnership with Marks & Spencer is continuing to perform well and demand remains high as consumers move to online ordering in the face of the current climate.

The company also announced the acquisition of two robotics businesses this morning for a combined consideration of $287 million. CEO Tim Steiner commented: “We consider the opportunities for robotic manipulation solutions to be significant, both for Ocado Smart Platform clients and across the fast-growing online retail and logistics sectors. Ocado has made meaningful progress in developing the machine learning, computer vision and engineering systems required for the robotic picking solutions that are currently in production at our Customer Fulfilment Centre (“CFC”) in Erith. Given the market opportunity we want to accelerate the development of our systems, including improving their speed, accuracy, product range and economics.

“I am delighted to be welcoming Kindred Systems and Haddington Dynamics to the Ocado group, as we believe they have the capabilities to allow us to accelerate delivery, innovate more, and grow faster. I am also excited by the opportunity to enter new markets for robotic solutions outside of grocery that is demonstrated by Kindred Systems’ robust growth, with existing customers such as Gap and American Eagle across the general merchandise and logistics sectors“.