Ocado Retail and charity group Community Shop have opened a new store together, as the organisations mark ten years of partnership.

The new Sunderland shop is the sixth store directly backed by Ocado Retail and the 16th location within the wider Community Shop network.

This marks a significant milestone for the collaboration between the two organisations, which has supported over 16,000 families in communities that are tackling food poverty across England.

The grocery retailer also supports stores in Warrington, Wirral, West Yorkshire and Leicester.

Jonathan Wiseman, general counsel and chief people officer at Ocado Retail, said: “We’re proud to have supported Community Shop for over a decade, and we’re delighted to have helped open this sixth store in Sunderland. We know the valuable impact the Community Shop will bring to local communities and look forward to seeing its success.”

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Ocado Retail and the Community Shop have created the equivalent of over 19m meals, donated free food to 222,620 children and helped members save over £17.6m on essential groceries during their partnership.

Gary Stott, executive chairman for Community Shop, said: “We are immensely proud to have formed such a strong relationship with Ocado Retail and created a partnership that enables us to work together to support people and communities across the country who need that extra bit of help.

“Our goal is to provide people with a hand up, not a handout, and without partners like Ocado Retail, we simply would not be able to offer the breadth of support that we do.”

The online retailer previously teamed up with the Community Shop in 2024 to launch an ‘On the Go’ van service to enable families to pick up a shopping basket with essential food and household products for as little as £3.