We offer a broad range of products, personalised by key filters through the customer webshop with clear information to meet customer needs. We have a larger range of vegan, organic and free-from products than any other UK supermarket, including extensive options for gluten-free and dairy-free diets. We also proudly give a platform for new and smaller purposedriven businesses to showcase their product offer.

• In 2022, 82% of our customers say sustainability is important, and we help our customers prioritise sustainability by offering convenient and dedicated shopping aisles.
• We promote affordability with price initiatives, including the ‘Fill your Fridge for £5’ campaign focused on healthy, fresh produce. Our marketing channel inspires with plant-based recipes and through our key partnership we encourage family cooking and bonding.
• Opting for green delivery slots reduces fuel-related emissions and we support closed-loop recycling by refunding returned carrier bags.

Collaborating with industry peers is vital in accelerating sustainable change, while innovation plays a crucial role in developing new products, services and processes that generate long-term social and environmental benefits.

Key collaborators include:

• The Soil Association on supporting farmers to transition to regenerative farming practices.
• WRAPon resource efficiency, food waste reduction and recycling.
• Manufacture 2030 and the BRC Mondra Coalition to reduce carbon emissions and decarbonise food supply chains.
• The Felix Project and Community Shop,help support and empower the most deprived communities to access healthy food, learn essential cooking skills and food education about how to make food go further.
• Various research partners on health and responsible packaging.

We promote consumer behaviour through food waste and recycling campaigns and integrating innovative digital technology. We launched the world-first digital deposit return scheme (DDRS) pilot for milk bottles in partnership with Polytag. The nationwide trial was designed to demonstrate the feasibility of implementing a digital deposit return scheme (DDRS) and assess how customers would engage with and adapt to a DDRS.

In 2022, we refreshed our approach to sustainability governance to help us better tackle the climate emergency. We formalised our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) structure with leaders across the business. In addition, we created a joint Climate Action Group with Ocado Group and Ocado Logistics to accelerate decarbonisation initiatives across both organisations.

We will provide more detail on our activity and performance on the full range of sustainability issues of interest to our customers and stakeholders through our dedicated sustainability topic webpage and annual updates.

We continue to engage directly with interested stakeholders such as WRAP, Food Foundation and WWF. As part of this engagement, we participate in surveys and benchmarks that provide us with an external perspective on our sustainability performance, help us better understand our areas of focus and ultimately help us to achieve our targets.

Our people are our most valuable asset. Their hard work and commitment have been integral to our sustainability progress so far and will be vital in continuing to progress towards our ambitions.

Our refreshed mission and values unite our colleagues to proudly and sustainably deliver joy in every shop. We introduced an intranet that unifies tools and provides colleagues with effortless access to the most important information including our sustainability strategy.

We’re proud to share that our Customer Hub was named ‘Contact Centre of the Year’ at the UK National Contact Centre Awards, which recognise ‘exceptional and inspirational individuals and teams across the contact centre industry’.

Diversity and inclusion: We’re committed to diversity, inclusion and equality. Ocado Retail has had female CEOs since it began in 2019 and just under half of our senior leadership group are women. As part of our Annual Reward Reviews, we consider pay equity to ensure women and men are paid the same for work of equal value, and we embrace flexible and hybrid working which can help female employees continue to progress into more senior roles. In 2023, we celebrated LGBTQ+ History Month and Black History Month. We aim to build and sustain a workplace community where colleagues feel empowered to be their whole selves at work and to feel represented and included. We aim to promote a sense of belonging, awareness and cultural and social integration, with the goal of making Ocado Retail the most inclusive employer and ensuring equality and belonging for all.

Supporting colleagues’ health and well-being: We focus on encouraging the good physical and mental health of colleagues. We have a range of health and well-being initiatives, including the introduction of a menopause policy and guidance, activities to mark Mental Health awareness week, and the introduction of the Aviva Digicare+ healthcare app. To support our colleagues who have caring responsibilities, we partnered with CarersUK in 2023 to provide them with access to a range of digital tools and resources to help make their caring situation easier. We celebrated ‘gut health week’ with internal communications, recipes and a webinar for all colleagues.

Staff engagement: We conducted monthly employee surveys to provide an informed picture of how colleagues feel about the business. An average of 75% of colleagues participated in these pulse surveys. Results were played back both at a company level and also at a more local team level, driving action plans to focus on the key engagement issues identified.

Realising potential: Ocado Retail takes career development seriously. We significantly developed our learning and development capability, including the introduction of a new learning management programme. We also launched an extensive Line Manager Development Programme, functional training for our Commercial and Customer teams, and coaching support for colleagues.