Lee Pettman-Felss, Ocado and B&Q, on Robots, Stores & the Final Mile

Lee Pettman-Felss started out as a graduate merchandiser at George at Asda. He spent the pandemic at Ocado Group as Head of Strategy and Transformation for Ocado Logistics, programme managing the response in the first twelve weeks of lockdown, from a new flat with no furniture, no internet and a mobile dongle. He is now Head of Strategic Development at B&Q.

He joins host Jamie Hamer to explain what automated fulfilment taught him, and why he calls automation bloody hard and vital at the same time. Why around eight in ten B&Q orders are picked in shops rather than warehouses. How a box of screws and a full kitchen leave the same business by entirely different routes. The systems spun up to last three to six months that were still load-bearing a decade later. The rapid delivery partnership he expected to be a stop-gap, which turned out to reach customers the retailer’s own platforms do not. The fuel surcharge every retailer eventually has to absorb, pass on, or split. And why returns run against the grain of a business built to sell.

This episode is for retail and e-commerce operators who have to make the speed promise and then pay for it.

Lee appears in a personal capacity. The views he shares are his own and not those of B&Q, Kingfisher plc or Ocado Group.

About Ocado Group
Ocado Group is a UK technology company building automated fulfilment for online grocery. It licenses the Ocado Smart Platform, which combines robotics, software and warehouse design, to grocers around the world, and co-owns Ocado Retail, the UK online grocery business, in a joint venture with Marks & Spencer.

About B&Q
B&Q is a UK and Ireland home improvement and garden retailer, part of Kingfisher plc. It operates more than 300 stores and diy.com, serving DIY customers and tradespeople through its trade arm TradePoint, alongside a fast-growing third-party marketplace.