Ocado Group PLC and Coles Group Ltd on Tuesday said their two customer fulfilment centres in Australia started operations in July.

Coles is a Melbourne-based supermarket chain. It now has begun to make deliveries to customers in Melbourne and Sydney from the two news CFCs, Ocado said.

Ocado is a Hatfield, England-based online grocer and technology licensor.

‘Powered by the cutting-edge artificial intelligence and automation in the ’Ocado smart platform’, the facilities will enable Coles customers to experience significant improvements in freshness, perfect order rates and range, as well as opportunities to trial new products,’ it explained.

Next day home delivery orders from stores in metropolitan Melbourne and Sydney are expected to be transitioned to the CFCs by the end of December, with further growth expected thereafter.

Ocado now operates 25 CFCs globally.

Ocado Chief Executive Tim Steiner said: ‘The start of operations in our two Australian CFCs is an exciting moment for teams at Ocado. Australia is one of the fastest developing markets in the world for grocery e-commerce, and Coles is already a market leader in the online channel.’

Shares in Ocado were up 1.3% to 364.80 pence each in London on Tuesday morning. Coles closed up 1.7% at A$18.77 in Sydney.

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