Ocado

We have worked with the UK’s only ‘pure-play’ online grocery operator – and the world’s largest dedicated online supermarket – since 2012, finding the top retail talent they’ve needed to drive their journey as pioneers in online grocery retail.

Always looking to innovate and evolve, Ocado were looking for someone to head up the grocery buying division. They needed a candidate with strong grocery experience and someone with classical food retail buying credentials who could adapt quickly to the online buying environment. They needed a highly analytical transferable skills candidate who could understand eCommerce analytical metrics. The remote location of the head office presented a geographical challenge, so location was a real factor when looking for the right person.

Seventeen years of immersion in the retail space means our database is ideal for this type of transferable skills candidate. We first searched our network to identify ideal candidates and then expanded the search from there to gain further recommendations of passive candidates unknown to us. The successful candidate came via one of those network recommendations. Following a successful career in food buying, he was regretting a recent move to non-food and keen to get back to his preferred sector. His suitability and willingness to move made him the ideal candidate and he was preferred out of the five candidates we nominated.

Our candidate is still in place at Ocado and has steadily built up his own team as the business has rapidly expanded. We are still working with Ocado today, recruiting the next generation of retail experts to help them deliver on their strategy of driving growth in the online retail space.