Sobeys wades into online grocery delivery in deal with U.K.’s Ocado Group.

TORONTO• So beys Inc. is the latest Canadian grocer to wade into e- commerce after last year’s arrival of Amazon into the nation’s competitive grocery industry forced incumbents to improve their online offerings.

“We can not count Amazon out and know that they will be strong,” said Cynthia Thompson, a Sobeys spokeswoman.

Amazon’s 2017 acquisition of Whole Foods Market, including its 13 Canadian locations, led to speculation Canada’s grocers would have to step up on home delivery offerings as the tech titan may expand its Amazon Fresh delivery service north of the border.

“We want to be the other player. The grocer that is competing with them headon,” said Thompson of what she called Sobeys’ strong, bold move into the delivery business.

Sobeys and Ocado Group announced Monday that they have signed a partnership deal for the British company to help build the grocer’s online shopping business, which they expect to launch in the Greater Toronto Area in about two years.

The long wait is equal to the amount of time it will take the two to build a customer fulfilment centre in the GTA.

Ocado, which was founded in 2000, will partner exclusively in Canada with Sobeys and also provide support and engineering services.

Sobeys, which will invest some capital into the fulfilment centre and pay licensing fees to Ocado, has yet to determine what it will charge customers for the service, she said.

The announcement comes just over two months after Sobeys’ competitor Loblaw Cos. Ltd. said it would partner with California- based Instacart to launch home delivery services in Toronto starting Dec. 6 and Vancouver starting this month.