Andrew Bracey's departure from Ocado raises profit doubts Officially, of course, it was all very amicable: Bracey was very sad to leave, but Michael Page was too good an opportunity to turn down. Everyone - including Steiner, Bracey and even Ocado's chairman Lord Grade - wished everyone else well and the best of luck. Steiner, of course, couldn't help himself and later deviated from the script. He is not saying that Michael Page has better prospects than Ocado: he is saying there are better prospects for Andrew Bracey at Michael Page. Michael Page may not have the dotcom sex appeal of Ocado - but it certainly looks a better bet than online retailer at the moment. For starters it is worth more than double Ocado and is expected to make profits of £85m this year. That's almost £85m more than the online retailer. As for its growth prospects - its Asia Pacific business grew 36pc last year and the US 43pc. Alongside Bracey's departure Ocado bought forward the announcement of a "long planned" management reshuffle to free up Steiner and allow him to focus on strategy. Jason Gissing, the co-founder who is currently director of people, culture and communications, is to take on the newly created role of commercial director. It's a big role for an executive who admitted not long ago to a "mid-life crisis," claiming that he felt "like a hamster in a wheel" at Ocado. For beleaguered shareholders the big issue, of course, is not who is doing what in Hatfield, but can Ocado actually make money (let alone generate a return on the hundreds of millions of pounds that have been invested in the business) packing groceries and then shipping them hundreds of miles to a customer's front door? Are there really enough people in Hastings or Halifax prepared to pay for someone else to pack their groceries for them and deliver them into their kitchen? Steiner and Ocado's cheerleaders insist that there are. In fact they are so confident, that they have started building a second distribution centre, even before the first has reached the capacity necessary to turn a profit. The departure of Bracey will raise fears that even he had started to have some nagging doubts. Perhaps not surprisingly after more than a decade of losses and counting. That is why shares in Ocado have more than halved in value since the retailer floated.