\n<\/p>\n
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Simply sign up to the Retail sector myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.<\/span><\/p>\n Ocado Group\u2019s relationship with Kroger has taken another hit after the US\u2019s largest supermarket chain said it would not go ahead with a planned automated distribution centre run on the UK group\u2019s technology.<\/p>\n The London-listed group, which provides automated technology for distribution centres as well as running its own grocery business, said on Friday that Kroger would scrap its Charlotte, North Carolina, distribution site ahead of an opening next year \u2014 one of two that Ocado is contracted to deliver.<\/p>\n Kroger last month scaled back the high-profile deal, which was intended to showcase the potential of the UK group\u2019s cutting-edge technology, by closing three of the eight automated warehouses that use Ocado\u2019s technology. <\/p>\n Kroger said it would monitor the performance of the remaining ones.<\/p>\n Ocado said it would receive a one-off payment of $350mn in compensation for the closed centres, up from last month\u2019s estimate of $250mn.<\/p>\n Recommended<\/p>\n Ocado and Kroger\u2019s original plan in 2018 anticipated they would develop 20 automated distribution centres over the course of three years. <\/p>\n But Ocado\u2019s facilities require extensive upfront investment and need to be operating at close to capacity to deliver a return on that outlay, owing to the high cost of storing perishable goods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Retail sector myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Ocado Group\u2019s relationship with Kroger has taken another hit after the US\u2019s largest supermarket chain said it would not go ahead with a planned automated distribution centre run on the UK group\u2019s technology. The London-listed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[3696,11940,157,10678,2377,1681],"class_list":{"0":"post-36040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-centre","9":"tag-distribution","10":"tag-kroger","11":"tag-ocado","12":"tag-planned","13":"tag-scraps"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}