Ocado Group has said that it regularly plans for who might succeed its boss following reports the company was lining up a replacement for the chief executive and co-founder amid a wider restructure.
The business said its board continues to engage in “long-term succession planning”.
It comes after reports the firm was preparing to appoint a successor to Tim Steiner, one of the founders of Ocado in 2000.
Niklas Heuveldop, the chief executive of Vonage, a subsidiary of Swedish tech group Ericsson, has been considered as a potential new boss, according to Sky News.
“Ocado confirms that the CEO (chief executive officer) and the board continually engage in long-term succession planning and regularly engage with potential candidates,” the company told investors on Monday.
Mr Steiner, who previously spent eight years as a banker for Goldman Sachs, set up the company with his former colleagues.
Ocado has a grocery retail business which it runs as a joint venture with Marks & Spencer, and an arm which runs robotic warehouses and technology platforms for supermarkets.
The company said in February that around 5% of its global workforce was going to be cut, mainly at its headquarters in Hertfordshire, as part of restructuring efforts.
Its share price has come under pressure after announcing the closure of warehouses run with its grocery partners in the US.
It is currently trading on the London stock market at around £1.80 per share, having peaked at around £29 per share back in 2020.
Meanwhile, Ocado recently announced a new partnership deal with Asda to improve the supermarket’s online grocery service for customers.
