M&S chief executive Stuart Machin has said the potential of its Ocado Retail joint venture is unlikely to be realised for a further three years.
His comments come as it revealed that Ocado Retail suffered losses of £23.4m over the period, up from the £700,000 last year.
Machin admitted: “We’re very positive about the potential of Ocado but to be quite frank, I think that the potential is going to be realised in three plus years, not in the next 12 months or 24.”
“The long-term plan for Ocado is exciting. I think its a brilliant opportunity for our food business and in the short-term, the reset is critically important.”
Machin said the tie-up with Ocado Group “remains in its early stages of a reset” which looks to improve the customer experience, introduce cost-cutting measures and improve product availability.
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The retailer has seen positive signs with there having been a “significant improvement year-on-year” of the M&S range available on the Ocado website.
There are currently around 4,500 M&S SKUs, which Machin explained equates to 80% of the M&S range.
He said that as a result of this, “active customers continue to grow, retention improves, and on-time and import orders have increased”.
In July, Machin told shareholders that he was “frustrated” by Ocado Retail for failing to feature M&S in adverts or emails, despite the supermarket owning 50% of the online venture.
M&S today (8 November) unveiled that its profits had surged 75% to £360.2m in its first half as food sales jumped nearly 15%.
