Ocado chief says he won’t be a ‘puppet master’ amid apparent succession row

Tim Steiner speaks as shares in the online grocer slide nearly 15% on plunge in pre-tax profits to £17m

The co-founder and boss of Ocado has said he has “no intention of being a puppet master” exerting control over its staff amid an apparent boardroom row over succession at the grocery technology company.

Tim Steiner, who is to stand down as chief executive in 2028, suggested that any successor would be happy to work with him.

Shares in the group slid nearly 15% to their lowest level in more than a decade on Thursday as the group revealed pre-tax profits of £17m in the six months to 31 May, down from £607m in the same period a year before.

In a trading statement, the company tried to gloss over reported boardroom tensions regarding the position of Steiner with no comment from its chair, Adam Warby. He had reportedly begun searching for a new chief executive, apparently without consultation with Steiner.

Last week, Ocado said Steiner would step down as chief executive in two years but stay on for another year in a “founder role”, providing “strategic guidance, deep market expertise and support” to the board through to 2029.

Steiner said on Thursday that if those running the business at that point wanted him to stay longer then he would.

“Anybody I have ever spoken to about the possibility of the role, externally or internally, is more than happy to keep some of my involvement in terms of relationships with clients with the perspective of having spent 26 and a half years of solving these challenges.

“I have no intention of being a puppet master and controlling everybody. I will be there to support them and give clients ongoing certainty of my involvement and how we can help them,” he said.

The plan was announced after weeks of speculation and rumours over the online grocer’s leadership after a slump in its stock market valuation in the past year.

Steiner, who co-founded Ocado in 2000 with two other former Goldman Sachs bankers, said on Thursday he remained “fully committed to leading Ocado through the next phase” and insisted the business was “on a good path”.

He declined to comment on the position of Warby, who took up the role of chair in 2024, and whether the pair of them could continue to work together.

However, Steiner, who has collected almost £100m in pay from Ocado since its stock market listing in 2010, said he was “not standing in the way” of hiring a new chief executive.

“It’s an exciting time,” he said, with the business still expecting to be generating positive cashflow by its year-end in November.

Ocado expected to sign up new clients in the US in the next six to 12 months and existing clients were seeing strong growth. He added that Ocado was poised to open its robot-run distribution centres for clients in South Korea and Japan and Phoenix in the US expected this year.

Steiner added that new facilities were likely to be needed in the UK from 2028 as its retail joint venture with Marks & Spencer continues to grow rapidly, with sales up 15% to £1.76bn in the half year.

Adam Vettese, a market analyst for the trading platform etoro, said: “The group remains loss-making, with cash burn still evident, albeit improving, and international technology adoption has continued to lag following earlier partner setbacks.

“With the shares already down almost 30% [in the] year to date and trading near multi-year lows, the negative reaction underlines persistent doubts over execution and the timeline to cashflow positivity.”