Ocado shares soar after it seals Groupe Casino deal

Ocado's shares have jumped by more than 20% after it finally announced a long-awaited international deal.

The online grocer has announced a tie-up with with French supermarket giant Groupe Casino.

As part of the agreement, Ocado will build an automated warehouse to serve the Greater Paris area and the Normandie and Hauts de France regions.

Ocado had been under pressure over its delay in expanding overseas and had already missed a self-imposed deadline.

Work on the new centre in France will start immediately and is expected to take at least two years.

Groupe Casino will also use Ocado's e-commerce technology to develop its own online business, starting with its sub-brand Monoprix.fr.

George Salmon, equity analyst at financial services company Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "This development has kick-started Ocado's transformation from niche British retailer into an international provider of game-changing technology."

Ocado said it expects the Groupe Casino tie-up to be profitable by 2019.

Ocado's chief executive Tim Steiner said: "We believe that the scalable, modular end-to-end solutions provided by the Ocado Smart Platform will allow retailers such as Groupe Casino to build their online grocery offer in a way that is profitable and sustainable, creating value for customers, suppliers and shareholders.

"We expect this deal to be one of many successful collaborations with leading retailers to use it the world over."

Groupe Casino chief executive Jean-Charles Naouri said: "This agreement is a major leap in terms of quality: 50,000 food items will be offered in the first stage to customers in the Greater Paris area with precise and speedy delivery at home and through a platform which makes it achievable to do this profitably."