UK retailer Marks and Spencer on Wednesday announced a deal with online supermarket Ocado to deliver M&S food direct to homes, as customers increasingly move to internet shopping. M&S, which already sells its clothing online and is shutting stores, is buying 50 percent of Ocado's UK retail business for up to £750 million ($994 million, 874 million euros), the two companies said in statements to the London Stock Exchange.

The joint venture will be known as Ocado.com. M&S branded food products will be sold online by September 2020 following the termination of Ocado's current such deal with UK supermarket group Waitrose. "I have always believed that M&S food could and should be online," Marks and Spencer chief executive Steve Rowe said on Wednesday.

"Combining the strength of our food offer with leading online and delivery capability is a compelling proposition to drive long-term growth." Ocado said the 50/50 joint venture would "transform online grocery shopping in the UK".

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019