Ocado waters down ethnic minority targets as bosses go cold on DEI

Telegraph

23-03-2025

Ocado has watered down targets to get more ethnic minority people into senior roles amid a wider rollback of diversity initiatives within corporate Britain.
The London-listed technology company, which jointly owns online grocer Ocado Retail with M&S, said its goal of having 10pc of senior management roles made up of people from ethnic minorities had been pushed back to 2030 from its previous target of 2027.
It comes as a growing wave of companies rein in so-called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies following a crackdown by Donald Trump in the US.
The US president has banned DEI programmes at federal agencies and ended government contracts with 'woke companies' that continue to adopt these policies.
Ocado has been increasing its workforce in the US after securing a deal with the supermarket Kroger to supply it with the technology which powers its robotic delivery warehouses.
Ocado insisted it remained committed to DEI and said the target had been delayed because its 'strong rate of retention among senior managers' meant it was unlikely to hit the 10pc goal before then.
At the end of its latest financial year, the level stood at 5.6pc of senior management, up from 4.5pc the prior year.
A spokesman said: 'It does not reflect any change in our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and we are making good progress across our other goals in these areas which extend across the business and our pipeline of talent.
'We strongly believe that diversity is a key driver of innovation and these targets are important for us to maintain our position as one of the UK's most innovative technology businesses.'
Last week, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission warned employers that their DEI policies may be illegal.
Trump's executive order on DEI has prompted a flurry of companies to ditch or scale back their diversity programmes, including Meta, Amazon and Walmart.
Some British firms have started to follow suit on watering down diversity plans including GSK and BT, which have pulled DEI measures from executive bonuses.
Sensodyne-maker Haleon last week said it would axe diversity targets from its executive bonus scheme, with its chief executive and chief financial officer no longer required to hit gender representation targets to maximise their pay.
Last week, Tim Martin, the boss of JD Wetherspoon, said diversity schemes have become 'politicised and weaponised' and called for common sense on the topic.
The changes at Ocado follow concerns over years of losses at the technology company. In February, Ocado revealed it racked up a pre-tax loss of £375m for its latest financial year, compared to a £393.6m loss a year earlier.
The company said it would make further job cuts as part of a drive to reduce costs and make the business profitable.
Ocado said the number of redundancies would be 'significantly' less than the 1,000 job cuts it made last year.