Online grocer and tech company Ocado is hoping to tap into London’s technology sector as it opens a new innovation centre in the city.
The company is establishing a new centre in Old Street to work on its Ocado Smart Platform (OSP), its bespoke warehouse automation software which it offers to other retailers including Casino in France.
The space will bring together 40 employees including software engineers, data scientists, user experience designers, researchers and product managers, with the number set to grow to 300.
Ocado plans for the team to focus on areas such as machine learning, big data, simulation and the cloud.
Initially the unit will be based at a shared working space but will move to a permanent office space in the near future.
The London space is the retailer’s sixth, complementing others in the UK, Bulgaria, Poland and Spain which have a collective 1400 people.
James Matthews, CEO Ocado Technology commented: “We’re excited to be expanding our network of development hubs into London, a city renowned for being at the forefront of tech innovation and home to many talented technologists.
“As we are growing rapidly, we are always on the lookout for people who share our drive to innovate. This London hub joins our network of development centres to offer exciting employment opportunities for ambitious, tech-savvy individuals.”
Ocado and customer Kroger recently began work on their first US customer fulfilment centre (CFC) in Southwest Ohio, with the site set to become operational in spring 2021.
A recent report by Peel Hunt recently claimed that Ocado’s technology was more advanced than Amazon’s, as amongst other things its robots can move faster.
