Last checked at 
(Adds detail)
LONDON, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Britain's Marks & Spencer
made the first deliveries through its new online food shopping
joint venture with Ocado on Tuesday, though launch day
was marred for a "very small number" of customers whose orders
were cancelled.
The 1.5 billion pound ($2 billion) Ocado Retail venture is a
cornerstone of M&S's latest attempt to turn itself around and
offset problems at its pandemic-hit clothing business.
"The M&S launch has been incredibly popular. We have seen a
surge in demand for M&S products in the run up to launch which
has impacted a very small number of orders today," said an Ocado
spokeswoman.
"The vast majority of customers are unaffected and will be
delivered as normal. We would like to thank our customers for
giving M&S such a big welcome and sincere apologies to any
customers having to wait a bit longer.”
M&S sees the new service as key to achieving its goal to
double the size of its 6 billion pound food
business.
The venture ends Ocado's long-running supply contract with
upmarket chain Waitrose, part of the employee-owned John Lewis
Partnership, and will replace some 4,500 Waitrose
products with the full M&S food range of 6,000 products and 800
everyday clothing and home lines.
On Friday Waitrose said it was teaming up with Deliveroo to
trial fast home-delivery.
Online grocery shopping has doubled its share of the UK
market to 14% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and
Ocado reckons it could reach 30% over the next few years.
($1 = 0.7440 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Alistair Smout and Kate
Holton)
