Ocado robots now pick 315 items an hour
Key Points
- Ocado's Luton warehouse picks an average of 315 items per labour hour
- Network wide productivity rose 11.3% to 267 units per hour
- Robotic picking now operates in 14 warehouses with 350 million picks completed
- Warehouse costs rose just 1.7% against 12.8% order growth
- The UK network ran at 103% of its original design capacity
Ocado’s most advanced warehouse now picks an average of 315 items per labour hour, a UK grocery industry record pace revealed in the company’s half year results on Thursday (16 July).
The Luton customer fulfilment centre leads the group’s UK network, where average productivity across all robotic warehouses reached 267 units per hour, up 11.3% from 240 a year earlier. Luton itself improved from 277, driven by the maturity of Ocado’s latest generation of picking technology.
Two systems account for most of the gains. On-Grid Robotic Pick uses robotic arms mounted directly on the warehouse grid to pick products without human involvement, and now operates across 14 warehouses and eight partners worldwide, completing more than 350 million picks to date.
Auto Frame Load automates the transfer of packed totes into delivery frames, removing another manual step.
Ocado’s 600 series bots, lighter machines that swarm across the storage grid retrieving crates, now run at scale in multiple sites worldwide alongside the picking arms.
What the robots mean for shoppers
The productivity numbers translate directly into cost control. Ocado Retail’s warehouse costs rose just 1.7% in the half despite orders growing 12.8%, leaving total fulfilment centre costs at 5.7% of revenue. Ocado said that figure sits far below what traditional supermarkets spend running stores.
That efficiency helped Ocado hold its average item price increase to 2.1% during a period when Nielsen measured UK grocery inflation at 3.9%, while still more than doubling Ocado Retail’s earnings to £72.9 million.
Capacity is the other consumer benefit. Ocado’s UK warehouse network ran at 103% of its original design capacity during the half, and the company said productivity gains will unlock significant additional volume from existing sites without major new investment.
More throughput per warehouse means more delivery slots without the cost of new buildings.
