Sapan Gai, CCO at Sovereign Metals, discusses their superior graphite test results. Watch the video here.
Sainsbury’s won our Online 33 despite some issues with its search bar function, which failed to recognise some key words.
It took our shopper 40 minutes to place her order and she gladly accepted all the substitutions the site proposed. The delivery arrived within the booked one-hour slot, and included 31 of the items she ordered with two replacements. Driver Jordan was “pleasant and had a friendly manner”.
Morrisons came a close second with 82 points. It took our shopper longer to place her order mainly due to the final checkout process, which was “extremely frustrating”. Originally, our shopper was able to order all 33 items, though the delivery arrived with three replacements.
Tesco had one of the lowest availability scores, as seven of our items ended up having to be replaced. However, our first-time online shopper found the site easy to navigate and was happy with her cheerful delivery driver, Paddy.
Next up was Asda. Our shopper said he was surprised the process of ordering online took the same time as an in-person shop. He was originally able to order all 33 items but was later notified of three substitutions. It arrived with just 32 items.
Ocado failed to impress our shopper. Her driver warned her they would be early minutes before arriving and dropped off her bags “without much care”.
Waitrose came in last mainly due to low availability. Our shopper was only able to order 27 items, and five of them ended up being substituted. She also said there was very little communication from the driver.
Kallumama - I mention both positive and negative - You don't need to look back too far at my posts where I mention that Ocado for me was a higher risk share in my portfolio - where there are downsides as well as up. I also spoke about their ratios. Some people do only focus on the positive but you only appear to focus on the negative. I really hope you are a share holder and we can all profit from their success
Limited damage
It might. But some argue it could also reassure potential partners over the measures Ocado has put in place since Andover. Thanks to “fire attenuation measures” in the wake of 2019’s disaster, the damage caused by the latest fire “was limited to a small section of less than 1% of the grid” Ocado says. By comparison, the Andover CFC is still not rebuilt and the incident sent shares down around 15%.
In other words, even a significant incident can now be brushed off in weeks.
“After the Andover fire, Ocado learned some valuable lessons in how to manufacture their space, racking and robotics to ensure fires were less likely in the first place, were less likely to spread when they happen, and to help minimise damage to the rest of the infrastructure in a worst-case scenario,” says Andy Halliwell, senior director of retail at Publicis Sapient.The company looked to other industries – like high-performance data centres – to “understand what needed to change”, he adds.
It is likely Ocado was pushing bots to their limits “trialling a new routing algorithm or testing the maximum speed” suggests Scriven. The company would make any of these new functions safe ahead of an update rollout to customers, meaning a similar incident in a partner facility would be unlikely.
“At the end of the day, we’re talking about new technology, so we can expect such incidents to occur during the process,” says Neil Jordan, principal consultant at procurement and supply chain consultancy Proxima.
As grocery automation expert Brittain Ladd puts it: “The tech isn’t dangerous, it is merely going through growing pains.”
The fire won’t slow down sales of Ocado’s fulfilment solution because “Ocado offers such a different business model and technology”, he adds.
So although it has caused temporary disruption to Ocado’s operations and inconvenienced its customers, the latest smoke cloud could have a silver lining.
Ultimately, argues Halliwell, “this is good news for Ocado in some ways as it demonstrates when the worst happens, their equipment is now hardened against these problems”.
Some argue the latest episode shows lessons have been learned
A collision between three robots at Ocado’s Erith CFC last Friday sparked a blaze that took 100 firefighters more than 12 hours to tackle.
As a result, thousands of orders have been cancelled or delayed as they are diverted to other CFCs. “It’s proving tricky to manage the extra demand,” Ocado told customers in the south east on Monday.
The retailer says operations at Erith will be “up and running in the next week” though “it may take a little longer to be at full service”. Disruption will be “short term” it added.
But it’s the long-term impact causing the most concern. The latest incident marks Ocado’s third fire in three years. In 2019, an electrical fault at a battery charging unit sparked a blaze that ripped through Ocado’s Andover facility, sending 10% of the retailer’s overall capacity up in smoke. Later that year, another broke out in a container for waste packaging at Erith.
There are fears the latest such incident could cause significant reputational damage. “Ocado’s partner acquisition was slowing down even prior to this fire,” says Rueben Scriven, senior analyst at Interact Analysis.
“Not only does Ocado have to convince retailers of the centralised model of fulfilment, it now has to convince them on the safety and functionality of its tech.” Potential buyers will “certainly think twice” as a result, he suggests.
Those concerns were reflected in Ocado’s share price plummeting 2.6% to its lowest value in more than a year at the start of this week. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, says this is down to the long-term outlook more than the immediate impact. “This has disrupted trading for its UK operations but perhaps is more damaging to its reputation, as it is trying to convince grocery providers around the world to sign up to its technology platform,” he says.
Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, reiterates those fears. “The main thing investors are concerned about is the safety of the technology – will this be repeated? It is only two years since the Andover facility burned down. Will this have an impact on future deals with international partners?”
It appears to me (and probably others too) that you are against Ocado and you shorted the stock? You surely cannot own any with the daily criticism. There are several shares I stay away from but I dont go on the forums criticising them or telling people how bad things are. I'm happy to have a discussion with people who hold the stock and look for reasons to be cautious but at the end of the day we want the share to rise. 99% of people on this forum want this but from what I read you are in the 1% minority. If by some miracle you do own Ocado shares why dont you sell them if you believe they are that bad?
I also work in IT (>30years) and am a Systems Architect - Finding the root cause of the problem can be difficult. They need to replicate the issue (or as close as they can - which they maybe able to do depending on what audit logs they have). THis however can be time consuming. Let's hope they are well on the way to a resolution
All I keep hearing at the moment on the news is how the supermarkets are struggling to stock shelves due to their staff isolating and that they may have to reduce opening times. This all seems to bode well for Ocado but what I don't know is if there is additional capacity for customers to fulfill orders. If Ocado are already running 100% then they can't take on anymore? If they can take extra orders do they have enough drivers? Just thought I'd ask here :)
Hi All
When I buy any shares I do my own research. With every share you have investors on chat forums that ramp and deramp. Everyone's attitude to risk is different. If you have purchased Ocado shares and you are worried about the price falling further to the point that it is making you uncomfortable (or feel you need to attack other forumites) then sell them and get out.
I am sitting on a loss with Ocado -
Am I disappointed? Yes
Am I worried? - No
Is it making being unnecessarily uncomfortable? - No.
Do I come on here and attack other people? No
If you have purchased Ocado stock we all have the same goal - for the price to go up and us all make money.
Yes the price has fallen over the last 6 months - The reason for this is not straightforward. The price is based on opinion. Some investors will look at the current share price as a buying opportunity some will think its overpriced. Some want to make a quick buck in a month or so some hold for years.
In the past I've invested in shares (and posted on here) where I've cut my losses as I was uncomfortable with a company. If the same happens here I will let you know. I will not insult anyone, I'll wish you well and move on. I don't expect that to happen.
Please review your own positions.
Happy Sunday everyone
Hi Guys - I just looked at a couple of Ocado's metrics - Current Ratio and Debt Ratio. Both are good but not as good as in March. The current ratio has decreased from 4.82 to 4.00 and although this means they have more money to hand than is really required I would have thought that this decrease may have paid off some debt? However the debt (to asset) ratio has increased from 34.88% to 35.43%. I dont think this is something to worry about right now but I'll keep my eye on it. With inflation kicking and the fear of interest rate rises I wonder if this will have an affect on borrowing costs and a negative share price? I'm not a expert at this so just putting it out there for thoughts really?
Hi Jimmy. I posted on here the other day as I am topping up shares in 10 companies every month. 9 companies are green for me the only loss (atm) is Ocado. All these shares are a long term hold for me and although this is the riskiest company I hold (doesn't make a profit yet) it is also the one I can make the biggest profit from imo. When in douby just read VP's posts :)
Yes Chilting - I prefer companies paying dividends that have low debt and good cash flow - but there are plenty of metrics I like re Ocado (although looking at the company it could be deemed more risky). I therefore allowed one in my 'Portfolio' as only 10% exposure
Couldn't agree more VP. In the past I owned shares that I was not confortable with and made the unenviable decision to sell at a loss. In some cases I felt better after the event. When I decided to create the spreadsheet with filters etc I did the research to make me feel happy - so I am happy with all that I hold and I review them at least quartly. I had five companies to start with SN, ABF, ANTO, HL, HLMA which I bought in April 2020. I added the remaining 5 in October. My biggest success my far is Antofagasta - Since buying and topping up monthly I am averaging a price of £8.06
Thanks Guys - I've created a spreadsheet with lots of different criteria to help me filter and analysis companies as a starting point. I have know problem sharing the companies I am in. Investing equally in all.
Smith & Nephew plc Medical Equipment
Associated British Foods plc Packaged Foods
Antofagasta plc Copper
Hargreaves Lansdown PLC Asset Managers
Halma plc Electronic Equipment
Ocado Group PLC Food Retailers & Wholesalers
Polymetal International PLC Other Precious Metals & Mining
Schroders Ord Shs Non-Voting Asset Management
Persimmon plc Residential Construction
Pearson plc Publishing
These are not my categories! Good luck all and thanks again