Launch of M&S food delivery service will not cover Scotland

IT is a long-awaited service which has been welcomed by consumers keen to have “not just” a regular supermarket shop delivered directly to their door.

M&S said it hoped to roll out delivery to areas including Scotland, but did not know when that would happen.

But Marks and Spencer has admitted that Scottish householders will not be able to benefit from its online food shopping service when its £750 million joint venture with grocery delivery firm Ocado launches next year.

M&S said no date has been set for when food delivery would be rolled out to Scotland, but told The Scotsman it was an “aspiration” of the partnership to ultimately extend the service to all regions of the UK.

Ocado, which has a long-running partnership with Waitrose, does not currently deliver to homes north of the border, with a focus on London and the south east of England.

A spokeswoman for M&S said that the joint venture, which will launch in September 2020, hoped to eventually have “complementary regional coverage” with its stores.

She said: “It is not something that a date has been set for in terms of when that will happen, but it is an aspiration for this partnership.”

Ocado’s Waitrose partnership, which was due for renewal this week, will not be continued - with M&S food due to be delivered in parts of the UK by Ocado from September next year.

Under the joint venture, M&S is acquiring a 50 per cent share of Ocado’s UK retail business, including placing some of its own branded products in M&S physical stores.

Tim Steiner, chief executive of Ocado, said: “We are delighted that our UK retail business will become a joint venture with M&S. This is a transformative moment in the UK retail sector with the combination of two iconic and much-loved retail brands set to provide an unrivalled online grocery offer.

Steve Rowe, chief executive of M&S, said that previous trials had online shopping had been “uneconomic” due to the high cost of manually picking from store.

He said: “I have always believed that M&S Food could and should be online. Combining the strength of our food offer with leading online and delivery capability is a compelling proposition to drive long-term growth.

“Our investment in a fully aligned joint-venture with Ocado accelerates our food strategy as it enables us to take our food online in an immediately profitable, scalable and sustainable way.”

He added: “Combining the magic of M&S Food with Ocado’s leadership in online technology allows us to transform UK online grocery shopping by offering customers the broadest, most innovative and relevant range in UK food retail with award-winning service.”

The joint venture business will have access to the 7m members of the M&S “Sparks”loyalty programme and 3m active M&S Bank customers, with “the potential” to build an integrated loyalty programme.

Lidl and Aldi will now be the only major supermarkets without an online shopping service.