Ocado has opened its first automated customer fulfilment centre with Lotte Shopping in South Korea.
The new Busan site will serve around 4m households across the city and wider Yeongnam region and introduces several Ocado Smart Platform technologies for the first time.
Among them is Ocado’s fully automated freezer, which extends its hive-and-bot technology into temperatures as low as -25°C.
The group said the system is expected to deliver more than double the productivity of a traditional manual freezer.
The fulfilment centre will also support South Korea’s popular dawn delivery model, allowing freshly packed grocery orders to reach customers before 7am.
Ocado signed its partnership with Lotte in 2022 as the South Korean retailer sought to grow its presence in online grocery. Lotte began using Ocado’s in-store fulfilment software in 2025 ahead of the launch of its first automated CFC.
Ocado said the Busan site is expected to be its most environmentally efficient fulfilment centre globally.
It will support a fully electric vehicle fleet for daytime deliveries and use more energy-efficient 3D-printed bots, alongside multi-temperature totes designed to increase delivery storage density.
Lotte also plans to install solar panels across the site, which it expects will cut annual carbon emissions by more than 1,000 tonnes.
The launch comes as South Korea’s online grocery market continues to expand rapidly.
According to Statistics Korea figures cited by Ocado, online grocery transaction value rose from KRW17.17trn (£8.7bn) in 2019 to KRW52.3trn (£26.5bn) last year, representing a compound annual growth rate of 20.4 per cent.
Online now accounts for 28 per cent of total grocery retail sales in the country.
Ocado Group chief revenue officer Nick De La Vega said: “This is another major milestone for Ocado as we launch one of our most advanced CFCs to date in one of the world’s leading markets for grocery ecommerce.
“Online is fast becoming the main grocery channel for many customers across South Korea, and we are excited to help Lotte deliver a step-change in the choice, service and experience it offers shoppers.”
Lotte Mart & Super chief executive Cha Woo Chul said the centre combined the retailer’s fresh food expertise with Ocado’s robotics technology and would help “reshape the paradigm of domestic online grocery shopping”.
Lotte said the facility would also create 2,000 jobs in the region.
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