Ocado shares boosted by deal talks with Marks & Spencer

M&S will be offering a crate of beer especially for Mother's Day.

The two retailers are reportedly set to launch talks in the coming weeks on the move which would help push Marks & Spencer into online grocery shopping and delivery for the first time, as well as allow Ocado to continue its profitable deal with Morrisons.

M&S is said to be exploring a number of options that could see it strike up a separate partnership or ditch those plans altogether, according to sources cited by The Telegraph, which first reported the story.

Ocado already has a deal in place to deliver orders for Bradford-based Morrisons, a deal which has been widely-praised by analysts for having contributing towards the firm’s success, helping swing the online firm into profit for the first time three years ago.

But changes to the contract last summer meant that Ocado is no longer exclusively tied to Morrisons.

Under the new terms Ocado is only prohibited from working with its supermarkets competitors including Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda, Aldi and Lidl.

However M&S is not included in that list, leaving the door open for a potential deal.

Both Ocado and M&S declined to comment.

But the news still pushed Ocado shares as much as 8 per cent higher, while M&S shares were down around 0.1 per cent.

M&S chief executive Steve Rowe last week said at an internal conference the company was looking at a soft-trial for online shopping and home delivery this autumn.

Mr Rowe said: “We continue to review food online carefully. It has not cost us anything over the last five years by not being online with food.

“Our customers haven’t moved yet, but they will and we need to ensure that we are ready with the right response.

“There are unanswered questions over what this means for M&S and we have a team looking at this now with a view to undertaking a soft trial in the autumn.

“The economics of food online are not straight forward and it is not something that we are going to rush into until we have substantial customer insight and a better understanding of what is right for M&S and right for our customers.”