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10th July 2023

Ocado launches first CFC in Asia with AEON

Ocado Group (“Ocado”) and AEON announced today the official go-live of their first Customer Fulfilment Centre (CFC) in Japan. The state-of-the-art CFC was unveiled by AEON and Ocado executives today at a ceremony in Honda-cho, Midori-ku, Chiba-city.

The CFC, the first of its kind in Asia, began taking orders today from customers across the Kanto region. In April 2023, AEON NEXT revealed its online grocery delivery brand, Green Beans. The service will offer a 50,000 SKU product range at scale as well as Smart Cart function and one-hour delivery slots to customers.

AEON NEXT’s second CFC will be based in Hachioji, Tokyo. Further CFCs will follow, and the capacity will be served using a configuration of different sized facilities from the Ocado ecosystem. This will enable AEON NEXT to serve a wide range of customer shopping missions flexibly as the Japanese grocery ecommerce market continues to develop.

The launch of the Honda CFC represents the first official launch of an Ocado CFC in Asia.

Tim Steiner, CEO of Ocado Group, said:

“Today marks the launch of something totally new in the Japanese grocery market, bringing a world-leading quality of service online to AEON NEXT customers in Tokyo for the first time. We’re proud to bring the benefits of Ocado’s technology to Japan, and to celebrate the first ‘go-live’ of an Ocado CFC in Asia.”

“Grocery spend in Asia is set to outstrip every other region of the globe over the next decade, and online remains the fastest growing channel in grocery across APAC. As the market develops, the ecommerce networks Ocado is building with partners in Asia will generate a step-change in the quality of service that customers can expect online.”

Akio Yoshida, President of AEON, said:

“We are excited to be the first in Asia to deploy the innovative Ocado platform under the “Green Beans by AEON” brand to service customers in the Tokyo Metropolitan area from today. We aim to marry the technology platform together with AEON’s knowledge of customers and products to help transform the way consumers shop and change their daily living by providing a service that offers ease, reliability and a wide choice of products and solutions. The effort is a cornerstone of AEON’s continued digital shift across the enterprise, and we will continue to collaborate with Ocado to innovate the online shopping experience.”

“We have also established a last mile subsidiary with ‘AEON NEXT Delivery’ to ensure a superior doorstep experience and have direct contact with our customers.”

Notes to Editors

About Ocado Group

Ocado Group is a UK based technology company trading on the London Stock Exchange (Ticker OCDO). It provides end-to-end online grocery fulfilment solutions to twelve of the world’s largest grocery retailers and holds a 50% share of Ocado Retail Ltd in the UK in a Joint Venture with Marks & Spencer. Ocado has spent two decades innovating for grocery online, investing in a wide technology estate that includes robotics, AI & machine learning, simulation, forecasting, and edge intelligence.

About AEON NEXT

AEON NEXT Co. Ltd. is a 100% AEON-owned subsidiary, founded in 2019 with the goal to launch and run the next-generation online grocery business on the Japanese market. AEON NEXT offers a compelling range of products, supported by a state-of-the-art, end-to-end platform that allows for shopping and delivery anytime, anywhere, in a seamless and delightful way!

Media enquiries

Ocado Group Press Office - pressoffice@ocadogroup.com

Charlotte Ritchie - c.ritchie@ocado.com

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