Dobbies to work with Ocado for online deliveries

UK garden centre retailer Dobbies has agreed a five-year deal with Ocado to expand its online offering and launch a nationwide delivery service. Dobbies chief executive Nicolas Marshall told UK media that the partnership could prove a “huge opportunity”, as the gardening sector of the retail business does only a small percentage of its business online at the moment.

Headquartered in Edinburgh, Dobbies runs 34 garden centres across the UK. In June 2016, Tesco sold the Dobbies Garden Centres business for £217m to an investor group led by Midlothian Capital Partners and Hattington Capital. Dobbies’ chairman, Andrew Bracey, a co-founder of Midlothian Capital, was Ocado’s chief financial officer from 2009 to 2012.