SPECIAL FEATURE – CITY FOOD LECTURE:
Mel Smith, CEO of Ocado Retail, was the host of the very first online City Food Lecture in February, where more than 850 people tuned in to hear her views on the role of new technology in the future of UK food retailing.
The City Food Lecture (CFL) proved to be yet another highly informative and enjoyable occasion for the audience of over 850 people despite having to be in a virtual format this year – and some minor technical hitches. The speaker was Mel Smith, the CEO of Ocado Retail, and her subject ‘The role of new technology in the future of UK food retailing’ was particularly topical at a time when Ocado has become the world’s largest online-only grocery retailer. She has much experience of the retail grocery sector having specialised on retail businesses when working with McKinsey and being a strategy director at Marks and Spencer before taking up her current post.
Online food sales nearly doubled in market share in 2020
Mel talked about the major changes that have taken place in recent years, particularly during the special circumstances of 2020 with online grocery sales accounting for 13% of the total market – a marked increase compared with 2019 when they only accounted for 7%. In global terms, the UK has one of the highest proportions of online purchases and current penetration levels are expected to double again in the next few years. Mckinsey research indicates that consumers take as little as two months to make a permanent change in shopping habits and the British shopper has experienced the Covid-related situation for more than nine months.
For Ocado, 2020 had been a really challenging year with the ‘massive’ increase in demand starting from March. It increased its capacity from existing sites by 40% and delivered a total of 17.7million orders. In addition to this, there were extra measures necessary to run a Covid-safe service, safeguarding both customers and colleagues. The key to the success in the operations had been the cutting-edge technology deployed throughout the supply chain.
A review of the lecture was published in the March/April 2021 issue of Food Management Today magazine, and readers can now see this in a new article view, making it an easy read on a desktop, tablet or mobile. Click here.
