How it started
History
Ocado was established by Jonathan Faiman, Jason Gissing and Tim Steiner, former merchant bankers with Goldman Sachs, as L. M. Solutions, in January 2000. Ocado started trading as a business in partnership with Waitrose, part of the John Lewis Partnership, in January 2002.
In September 2006, Michael Grade became non-executive chairman of Ocado. In November 2008, the John Lewis Partnership transferred its shareholding of 29% into its staff pension fund. In May 2010 the John Lewis Partnership entered into a 10-year branding and supply agreement with Ocado. In February 2011, the John Lewis pension fund sold off its entire Ocado shareholding.
On 13 July 2009, Ocado released its first app for the iPhone. The app, called 'Ocado on the Go', allows users to do their grocery shopping without the need for a PC. On 19 April 2010, the company extended the app to Android devices.
In July 2010, Ocado undertook a stock market Initial public offering.
In January 2014, Ocado started providing website, warehousing and delivery services for one of their main grocery rivals, Morrisons supermarkets, allowing them to operate online using Ocado's network of depots to deliver Morrisons groceries to online customers.
From Wikipedia’s article on Ocado, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2