M&S revealed it had “not seen evidence” for making a final payment for Ocado as chief executive Stuart Machin said the “binary” performance-based payment was not met.
“For us, it’s pretty clear we continue to rate the accounting value as zero,” he said.
The pair have been in dispute since M&S put the final payment for its share in the Ocado Retail joint venture on hold in February after it failed to meet a specified level of earnings in its last financial year.
The retailer said this morning: “Both shareholders have proposed adjustments which are currently being evaluated but we have not, to date, seen evidence we believe would result in a payment being made.”
Despite this, Machin insisted: “We’re committed to the turnaround strategy for Ocado Retail.”
The retail boss emphasised that the ongoing payment talks were not “interrupting us in the day-to-day running of the business”.
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“I think we’re working very well with Ocado Retail,” he added, explaining that the pair have “very constructive board meetings”, and that he talks to the online retailer’s boss Hannah Gibson “almost every week”.
While the retailer termed the financial performance of Ocado Retail “remains disappointing”, Machin noted it was “in early stages of driving growth and we’re quite encouraged by that”.
Ocado was named the fastest-growing grocer by Kantar, as sales rose 12.4% over the 12-weeks to 12 May.
Machin highlighted that M&S has 4,800 products on the platform, up 20% year-on-year and that “in the last few weeks”, M&S products have made up 30% of all baskets online.
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