Ocado Group PLC (LSE:OCDO) has extended its partnership with French retailer Groupe Casino to create new robot-operated online delivery warehouses that can be accessed by "all grocery retailers in France".
The two companies are creating a joint venture that will offer logistics services from certain warehouses, or customer fulfillment centers (CFCs) as Ocado calls them, around France.
"This is a great milestone for our relationship with Groupe Casino as we extend the partnership in a number of exciting directions," said Luke Jensen, chief executive of the FTSE 100-listed company's Solutions arm.
"I'm excited that Ocado Group's cutting-edge technologies are now available to all grocery retailers in France, with the new JV leveraging our combined expertise to provide key logistics services for future CFCs."
Among the agreements, which were first indicated in a memorandum of understanding announced in February, Ocado will integrate Casino's Octopia marketplace platform into OSP (Ocado Smart Platform) and allow global OSP partners to launch their own marketplace offering. Octopia is owned by Cdiscount, which is an arm of Casino
It also allows for the deployment by Groupe Casino of the OSP in-store fulfilment solution across its Monoprix stores.
Shares in the company fell 4.4% to 765.8p on Thursday morning, down 18% on the month and having halved since the start of the year.
The grocery retailer recently raised £578mln in a share placing to fund expansion, at an issue price of 795p.
This received a sceptical reaction from some analysts, with Credit Suisse downgrading its rating as it felt the company has failed to sign up as many customers as expected.