The British Ocado opens headquarters in 22@ and expects to exceed 200 employees

Ocado Technology, a subsidiary of the English group Ocado, strengthens its ties with Barcelona coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the opening of a software development headquarters in the city. This delegation is focused on e-commerce companies and, more specifically, on the development of online sales platforms for supermarket chains. The Catalan distribution group Bon Preu, for example, has used Ocado's software for the launch of its online supermarket, but most clients are from other countries, such as Morrisons, Casino, or Kroger.

In these last five years, Ocado's Barcelona headquarters has grown and currently employs 175 people from up to 29 nationalities. New hires are planned this year to strengthen the technology and product areas, with the goal of exceeding 200 employees. The company acknowledges that the number of hires could be even higher, but finding the necessary talent and profiles is a challenge in a city where there is currently a real struggle to recruit technology professionals.

The increase in staff and the forecast for future growth has led the company to seek larger offices than those it had on Avenida Josep Tarradellas, and it will now begin the move to a new office building located in the 22@ district, which it plans to inaugurate next June. Ocado's new corporate headquarters in Barcelona is located at Calle Badajoz 112, in a new building of 2,443 square meters spread over several floors and featuring a 379 square meter terrace. It is a property built by Renta Corporación, which has invested more than ten million euros in the project, fully adapted to Ocado's needs, with whom it has signed a rental agreement. The building holds the demanding Leed Gold sustainability certificate and is one of the first developments entirely dedicated to offices by the developer chaired by Luís Hernández de Cabanyes, who usually operates in the residential market.

Although it already has a two-decade trajectory, Ocado ---one of the main online supermarkets in the United Kingdom--- defines itself as a "20-year-old startup", in reference to being a consolidated company with a "startup culture". "This translates into an agile way of working, based on experimentation, key to being able to take on the complex technological challenges that disruptive innovation entails," explains Guillem Vila Palau, director of Ocado Technology Barcelona.

The company has just joined the Barcelona Tech City association as a Global Partner, with the aim of "reinforcing our commitment to the city of Barcelona and the technological ecosystem and local talent," explains Vila Palau. For Miquel Martí, CEO of Barcelona Tech City, Ocado "reinforces the base of international partners and allows access to first-hand knowledge of technology applied to the retail sector."

Although Ocado, which is publicly traded, was born as an online supermarket in London, today it is a technology group that operates in the software and hardware business and develops solutions for the industrial sector, through robotization and automation, artificial intelligence and big data. Ocado Technology is the group's subsidiary that created the Ocado Smart Platform (OSP), aimed at supermarket chains that want to sell "perishable products online in a scalable, profitable and sustainable way."