Ocado Group PLC (LSE:OCDO) and Groupe Casino announced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to extend their partnership in France.
Under the agreement, the companies will set up a joint venture (JV) that will provide logistics services to Ocado Smart Platform (OSP)-powered customer fulfilment centres (CFCs) in France, which will be available to all grocery retailers.
There are no initial capital cost associated with the JV to either Ocado or Casino, the companies said in a statement. They noted that the JV is not expected to impact the current live operations of their partnership.
The extension of the partnership also involves Casino deploying Ocado's In-Store Fulfilment solution across its Monoprix store estate.
In addition, Ocado will integrate Octopia's marketplace platform into OSP and allow OSP partners around the world to launch their own marketplace offering. Octopia is a subsidiary of the French e-commerce website Cdiscount.
The agreement between Ocado and Cdiscount gives Ocado the option to buy Octopia shares in the event of future fundraising.
"The online grocery channel in France has reached an inflection point, with a huge rise in demand for compelling, affordable and efficient grocery ecommerce propositions,” said Tim Steiner, CEO of Ocado Group.
"This announcement marks a deepening of the relationship between Groupe Casino and Ocado Group, and it will further support the capital light expansion of our partnership into other French regions. For the first time, it will also open up the whole of the French grocery market to Ocado's solutions."
Jean-Charles Naouri, chief executive of Groupe Casino, added: "This partnership illustrates our ability to once again revolutionize the way of disrupting the online grocery market.
“After having experienced the success of the Ocado solution with Monoprix Plus, Casino Plus and Naturalia Marché Bio, the French consumers will be able to benefit from new, even more efficient ecommerce services, making their daily needs even easier.”
Ocado shares climbed 2.68% to 1,378.50p in morning trade.