19 YEARS IN THE MAKING

M&S’s grocery delivery service is the result of 19 years of talks with Ocado.

At 6.05am yesterday, a deal was finally done, with Ocado chairman Lord Rose having been on the phone to chief executive Tim Steiner until almost 2am.

Rose was chief executive and later executive chairman of M&S for six years, during which time current chief executive Steve Rowe was promoted to the M&S board.

But Steiner insisted he pioneered the deal with Rowe, with Rose and M&S chairman Archie Norman playing a minor role.

Steiner said: ‘He’s [Lord Rose] involved as our non-executive chairman as he should be in a major strategic transaction.’

Rowe said: ‘We should have done it earlier. It is fortuitous Tim and I have found a solution to create this exciting venture.’