Ocado Group PLC on Thursday promoted Chief Operating Officer Mark Richardson to chief executive officer of its new business unit aimed at extending Ocado’s product range into new market sectors.

The upcoming launch of the ’Re:Imagined Ocado Smart Platform’ products follows the 2020 acquisitions of Kindred Systems and Haddington Dynamics.

The online grocer said that this will help the company expand outside of its core grocery focus, with a product range which can be adapted for automated storage and retrieval systems used in a range of market sectors.

The new venture will be self-financing and will not require any additional capital beyond what it has previously guided, Ocado added.

Chief Executive Officer Tim Steiner said: ‘Mark is a 20-year Ocado veteran and during this time has been responsible for teams spanning technology, platform implementation, and logistics. He also has extensive experience of working directly with the materials handling equipment sector.’

Ocado didn’t say who, if anyone, will replace Richardson as group COO.

Shares in Ocado were down 0.4% to 765.80 pence each in London on Thursday morning.

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