The John Lewis group has handed its stake in the Ocado home delivery business to its pension fund, enabling the two businesses to compete head to head.

The move comes less than four months after Ocado director Jason Gissing said John Lewis was "a complete pain in the arse to deal with". He revealed the two groups fell out regularly and described John Lewis executives as "irritating".

John Lewis's Waitrose home delivery business can now take on Ocado, while Ocado will be able to sell its highly regarded delivery service to retailers that compete with John Lewis department stores.
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