Ocado – a relocation to reflect growth and prosperity

From the comfort of a new office, to the comfort of customer homes

Ocado is an English online supermarket in partnership with Waitrose. Instead of chain stores, it offers deliveries straight to the door of customers across the country.

Ocado’s Headquarters were originally positioned to the south of Hatfield, Hertfordshire. The business needed to consolidate into two buildings in Hatfield Business Park, which meant moving 1200+ staff in 5 phases in 2016-17.

We provided a Move Manager to work in-house with Ocado to provide a thorough solution to the 5-phase relocation:

• Phase 1 – move 200 people
• Phase 2 – move 250 people (Contact Centre team)
• Phase 3 – move 350 people
• Phase 4 – move 250 people

The new workplace – best served to serve the public

Prior to the moves, our team mapped the existing locations of all workplaces and furniture that needed to be relocated. A filing audit compiled by the team logged the precise details of all items to be moved.

We then provided detailed move instructions to the relevant parties in the Ocado team, ordering crates and packaging for the safe removal of all workplace items.

During each of the five phases, our specialist teams oversaw furniture dismantling and decommissioned IT, safely and securely moving all items into their new positions, as per the detailed plans that had been drawn up alongside the Ocado Property team.

Once all items were in the correct new location, the Moves team put together all desking and prepared workplaces.

Each phase was completed over a weekend, with workers able to start in their new locations on the Monday morning.

To ensure a smooth handover, we provided a small team of porters to clear away unpacked crates, locate and pack away empty crates to ensure that the staff were able to start working at their stations as soon as possible with minimal disruption.

Services Provided

• 5-phase move of 1,200 staff into new location
• Pre-move mapping of all furniture for relocation
• Safe transport of all items
• On-site team for post-move packaging

“This was an exemplary end to end service, ensuring a smooth relocation of all teams.

I would like to extend a thank you to all those involved with the relocation of the Ocado head office, and look forward to working with you again in the future.”

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Rebecca Bayliss, Ocado’s Property Project Manager