Listen: Kroger Inks E-Commerce Deal with Ocado

Kroger, apparently, has no plans on just standing still in its position as one of the largest brick-and-mortar grocery chains in the world.

The supermarket giant recently announced a new partnership with U.K.-based e-commerce expert Ocado.

With both Amazon and Walmart striving to increase their respective online footprints, this strategic alliance between Kroger and Ocado will definitely intensify the battle for U.S. e-grocery dominance.

Ocado’s industry-leading automated fulfillment system and customer-friendly interfaces, are part of the reason that it is one of the few e-commerce grocery businesses in the world that is actually profitable. They generated an EBITDA of around $116M in 2017.

Kroger is no stranger to U.K. companies, having previously worked with both Tesco and Dunnhumby on developing customer loyalty programs.

This partnership will see Kroger take about a %5 stake in the European company, valued at approximately $247M.