Marks & Spencer has expanded its Food To Order online offer in a move that appears to be pushing the business slowly but surely into the online food market.
More than 50 meat and dish products have been added to its online party food offer mainly consisting of sandwiches, cakes, sausages rolls and mini-burgers.
The range now includes a £52 Aberdeen Angus rolled beef sirloin that serves 10, four sirloin steaks at £42 and £35 Turkey crowns - clearly still for the entertaining market. But there is also a £7 beef lasagne and £9 beef chilli con carne that could clearly satisfy families for a few evening meals.
From next month the online offer will also include pheasant, wood pigeon and rabbit.
The food is prepared by M&S's chefs and then sent to the most convenient store - customers still have to go to stores to pick up their orders on a 'click and collect' basis.
M&S last week insisted that it would not be heading wholesale into the online grocery business as others like Sainsbury's and Waitrose have done. And this current strategy clearly targets a very specific market.
But, as we said earlier this month, is will be interesting to see how long it can ignore the online and where the pain barrier exists that others like Morrisons have clearly felt in the face of rampant competition. Morrisons agreed a deal with Ocado in May that will see it launch a full online service in January.
But even as it drags its heels, the Food To Order business will provide M&S with a convenient beachhead that will allow it to push and test the market using the right technology and systems that could one day form the bedrock of larger online ordering business.
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