British online grocery platform, Ocado Group, has announced the acquisition of two US robotics companies.
The acquisition of Kindred Systems, an advanced piece-picking robotics company, for US$262m and robotic-arm designer and manufacturer, Haddington Dynamics, for US$25m, is expected to increase 2021 revenues by around £30m.
The move will accelerate the commercialisation of robotic picking and other automation tasks for Ocado Smart Platform clients, the company says.
And, according to a trading statement published by the company this week (2 November), Ocado Group expects its underlying profits for the year to be over £60m, compared to its previous estimate of over £40m.
Ocado Retail Ltd – a joint venture between Ocado Group and Marks & Spencer Group, continues to see high demand thanks to “record” growth in consumers turning to online grocery.
Commenting on the “significant” business acquisitions, Tim Steiner, CEO of Ocado, commented: “Ocado has made meaningful progress in developing the machine learning, computer vision and engineering systems required for the robotic picking solutions that are currently in production at our Customer Fulfilment Centre in Erith. Given the market opportunity we want to accelerate the development of our systems, including improving their speed, accuracy, product range and economics.
I am delighted to be welcoming Kindred Systems and Haddington Dynamics to the Ocado group, as we believe they have the capabilities to allow us to accelerate delivery, innovate more, and grow faster.”
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