Japan's Aeon signs up Ocado in online grocery bet uk.reuters.com

TOKYO/LONDON (Reuters) - Japan’s biggest supermarket group, Aeon Co Ltd has hired British online grocery pioneer Ocado to develop its e-commerce business, hoping to fend off rivals such as Amazon as more customers buy groceries online.
The partnership anticipates Aeon will have an online grocery sales capacity of about 600 billion yen ($5.5 billion) by 2030 and 1 trillion yen by 2035.
Aeon will also use Ocado’s product-picking software within parts of its existing store network, and offer click-and-collect services from selected sites.
“We see Ocado as a state-of-the-art, exciting and transformative partner aligned with our strategy of accelerating Aeon’s digital shift to serve Japan’s consumers,” said Aeon CEO Motoya Okada.
Ocado said it expected an additional 25 million pounds ($32.1 million) of operating costs in its fiscal 2020 year to implement the Aeon deal.