Ocado's stock market listing set to value the company at £1.18bn

The firm said shares will be priced at between 200p and 275p each as it prepares to publish its prospectus and launch an investor roadshow ahead of a flotation later this month.

Ocado employees and customers who have spent more than 300 with the company so far this year will have until the end of July 18 to take part in a shares offer.

The listing, which is expected to earn Ocado a place in the FTSE 250 Index, is set to net paper fortunes for its founders – three former Goldman Sachs bankers Tim Steiner, Jason Gissing and Jonathan Faiman – and management, who between them own 13.3 per cent of the business.

Ocado wants to raise 200m by selling new shares as part of the initial public offering to help expand its distribution centre and build a second warehouse.

But the firm, which delivers Waitrose food, has never made a profit since launch more than 10 years ago.

Around 15 top bosses at Ocado are to take part in a share ownership scheme, which could reportedly pay out 30m within four years if they double the share price.

They are expected to invest around 1m of their own money into the scheme – said to be similar to that run by clothing retailers such as Next and ASOS.

A successful life on the stock market could also benefit other major shareholders, such as the John Lewis company pension scheme, which owns around 25 per cent of Ocado.