Ocado said an electrical fault with one of its battery charging units caused the February fire at its Andover customer fulfilment centre, in a circular for investors ahead of a meeting regarding its impending tie-up with Marks & Spencer.
The retailer said the fire occurred because of an “electrical fault with one of the first-generation battery charging units at the edge of the ambient storage grid”, which caused the “plastic lid on the top of a grocery-carrying robot to catch alight”.
Ocado said it had “undertaken a number of remedial actions intended to eliminate the risk of such an event occurring again”, including adding heat sensors in the ambient product storage grid “which are in addition to the existing sensors in the chilled storage grid” and removing the plastic lids.
The fire at the warehouse caused the roof to collapse and resulted in “sustained damage to the majority of the building and its contents”.
The retailer confirmed its previous statements that “there are no significant implications for the risk profile” of Ocado’s technology moving forwards.
Prior to the blaze, the Andover depot was providing about 10% of Ocado’s UK delivery capacity. At the time, the retailer warned of a 3% reduction in sales growth over the next quarter, while Ocado worked to increase capacity at other centres.
Earlier this month, it emerged that Ocado had installed 10,000 sq ft of temporary refrigeration units on the site with the aim of fulfilling some deliveries by the end of April.
The update was part of a circular issued by the retailer to investors on Friday, ahead of a vote by Ocado shareholders on the M&S deal that will take place at a general meeting on May 20.
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