Marks & Spencer’s full food range is now available online as retailer replaces Waitrose in Ocado partnership

Shoppers can now order M&S's entire range of food from Ocado

Most supermarkets don't have any delivery slots left, or some only available weeks away (Getty)

Marks & Spencer has purchased a 50 per cent share in Ocado, which means that its full food range can now be purchased online for the first time.

It was announced in February that Ocado was launching the £1.5 billion delivery partnership with M&S, and parting ways with Waitrose after 20 years as its delivery partner.

Prior to the September 2020 launch, only M&S’s party food was available for delivery to some UK locations, while 130 of its food and household items could be ordered on Deliveroo.

With M&S’s range now added to its offering, Ocado says it boasts a selection of over 50,000 products, which it claims is "double that of the next largest grocery retailer”.

6,000 of these are M&S items, while the rest are Ocado branded or from big-name brands.

Previously, the best value for money range on Ocado was the Essential Waitrose products, which have been replaced by like-for-like products from the M&S Remarksable Value range.

The retailer promises the new affordable range will be the same price or cheaper than the Waitrose items.

Customers who prefer the own-brand range can still order them via Waitrose.com.

Retail chief executive Melanie Smith at Ocado said the new partnership is a "winning combination of the country's fastest-growing grocer and the nation's most beloved food brand”.

One of M&S's most beloved products, Percy Pig sweets, are now pictured on the side of some of the Ocado delivery vans.

The effects of coronavirus and the resulting lockdown have hit M&S hard, with 7,000 job cuts recently announced.

The decision to partner with Ocado shifts more of the business’s focus onto the fast growing areas of online shopping and food, which saw record breaking surges in sales during lockdown.

Ocado launched in 2002 and says it can now reach 90 per cent of UK postcodes.