Ocado pumps £17m into vertical farming joint venture June 10, 2019 Online grocer Ocado has invested £17m in the emerging vertical farming industry as it looks to bolster its technology offering. Vertical farming involves the production of food in indoor facilities, where crops are grown on a series of levels in a controlled environment. Read more: Ocado set to cut 400 jobs as it looks to [...]
Morrisons fails to convince despite Ocado deal May 16, 2019 | City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. It talks the talk, and a 6 per cent dividend yield is attractive, but can this £50 billion grocer walk the walk? Morrisons (LSE:MRW) offered more evidence of its "ever-improving shape" after a robust trading update and intriguing deal to re-write its online partnership with Ocado. While the supermarket's shares [...]
Ocado chips in to £7m round for UK robotics startup Karakuri May 9, 2019 Ocado has led a £7m seed round for UK robotics firm Karakuri, its first investment in a tech startup. Other backers in the round included Hoxton Ventures, Firstminute Capital and Taylor Brothers. The online supermarket chain will use Karakuri's technology to expand its grocery offering after a fire devastated one of its automated warehouses. It [...]
Sainsbury’s: Buyers bet that shares have seen the low April 26, 2019 | City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. Trading within a whisker of a record low, a lot of bad news is already written into the share price. Yesterday’s humiliation of Sainsbury (J) (LSE:SBRY) and its boss Mike Coupe has not stopped investors from piling into the supermarket giant’s shares in the belief the chain can bounce [...]
Best 25 stocks in the last tax year April 15, 2019 | City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. The FTSE 100 outperformed mid-caps last tax year, but the top FTSE 350 performers might surprise you. Take a look at the financial year ended on the 5th April, with the 25 top performing stocks in the FTSE 350 all producing gains of 40 per cent or more over the [...]
Lloyds Bank stars as FTSE 100 rockets in Q1 April 9, 2019 | City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. After a great first quarter for stock markets, we assess the best and worst blue-chips of 2019 so far. It’s been a storming start to 2019 for the FTSE 100 index, with popular interactive investor stocks including Lloyds Banking Group (LSE:LLOY), Next (LSE:NXT) and Tesco (LSE:TSCO) among those on [...]
M&S buying growth with Ocado? February 27, 2019 | City Talk M&S’s purchase of Ocado’s UK retail business looks rather like one of its own ready meals – overpriced, not very good for you but easy, quick and ready to heat up. M&S and Ocado have confirmed the details of their joint venture. M&S is paying up to £750m for the 50/50 stake in Ocado’s UK [...]
Peltarion, the AI startup used by Nasa, Ocado and Tesla, raises $20m February 14, 2019 Swedish artificial intelligence (AI) startup Peltarion is heading across the Atlantic after closing a $20m (£15.5m) funding round. The series A funding was led by Euclidean Capital, which has also backed the likes of popular DNA ancestry startup 23 And Me. Existing investors FAM, which is owned by Swedish investor family the Wallenbergs, and EQT Ventures also took [...]
These are Britain’s best companies for customer service: First Direct, Amazon and John Lewis July 15, 2015 Anyone who detests being taken for granted by a company will be pleased to know there's a list of firms offering shoppers the best customer service experience. Online bank First Direct scored 87 for the overall level of customer satisfaction, helping it overtake better-known brands such as Amazon and John Lewis in a ranking compiled [...]
Ocado targets international deals after beating profit expectation June 30, 2015 The figures Ocado delivered better-than-expected pre-tax profit of £7.2m in the first half of the year, amid reports the grocery delivery giant is closing in on a deal with an international retailer. Read more: Ocado's making robots that will help in the workplace Despite intense price competition in the UK's supermarket sector, Ocado enjoyed a 15.7 [...]