The partnership with Ocado did not achieve the results expected. I believe the loss was circa £40m. Could the Board expand on this? I also think funds were retained that Ocado believed they were entitled to. Could this ultimately end in litigation?

This question was answered live in our broadcast at 31:21.

We are committed to the turnaround strategy for Ocado Retail and positive about the potential of the JV.  

We are in the early stages of driving sales growth, which improved during the year driven by increased choice of M&S products and better value for money.  

4,800 M&S products are now on Ocado which is +20% on last year, while sales of M&S products grew +15% in Q4.

Profitability is clearly not where we want it to be, and Ocado Retail is behind plan. The next 18 months are important as ORL moves on to Ocado Group’s new technology platform which has been delayed and delivers more automation.  

On the contingency payment to Ocado Group we are clear that the payment was linked to performance targets for ORL and our advice remains that these targets have not been met. The performance target is binary meaning it is either payable or not.

Discussions with Ocado Group are continuing and there is a mechanism for reasonable adjustments. We continue to rate the accounting value of the payment as zero. If it came to legal action we are confident in our position. This does not impact the running of the business.