Ocado will double the number of robotic arms in its warehouses as it aims to boost the speed of packing grocery orders.
Hannah Gibson, chief executive of Ocado Retail, said that the number of robots with arms at its warehouse in Luton, Bedfordshire, will double from 22 to 44 in “the very near future”, reported the Financial Times.
“This technology enables us to have a bigger choice…lower substitutions, and the operating model is more efficient than a store-based model,” she explained, adding that about half of the range in the warehouse will be handled by robotic arms “in the near term”.
She aims for this to reach with roughly 80%.
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The retailer introduced new robotic arms last year, designed to pick individual products from storage boxes, in comparison to older iterations that retrieved boxes for employees to finish the grocery packing.
The move comes as Ocado profits have been under pressure.
Its half-year losses widened 37% to £289.5m in the six months to 28 May, altough this included £77.2m of exceptional items due to revaluation from Ocado Retail partner Marks and Spencer and restructuring costs from the closure of its Hatfield distribution centre earlier this year.
Last month, Ocado inked a deal with Canadian healthcare provider McKesson, which saw the online retailer venture outside of the retail sector for the first time.
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