John Lewis Partnership has put its 29 per cent stake in Ocado into its pension fund and signed a five-year Waitrose sourcing agreement with the e-tailer putting to rest talk that the sides might go their separate ways.

John Lewis said on Friday that it would transfer its £128m holding in Ocado, which sells Waitrose goods to tens of thousands of customers each week, in a deal that values the eight-year-old grocer at £441m.