Technology

Posted on January 31, 2017 by staff

Ocado outpaces grocery market with record 1.27bn year

Technology

Online supermarket Ocado has outpaced the UK grocery market despite tough trading conditions, reaching £1.27bn in revenue.

In the year to November 2016, order volume grew by 17.9 per cent to an average of more than 230,000 orders per week.

But average basket value declined by 2.7 per cent to £108.10.

Chief executive Tim Steiner said the performance reflects “robust trading” in its core business – selling own brand groceries from Waitrose and through a distribution agreement with Morrisons.

Sales were up by 14.8 per cent on the same period in 2015, and post-tax profit was 1.7 per cent higher (£12m).

EBITDA rose by 3.3 per cent to £84.3m.

Steiner said: “Over the course of the last year, we grew our active customer base by almost 14 per cent, with growth in average orders per week approaching 18 per cent, testament to the strength of our customer proposition, market position and technology.”

The Hatfield-headquartered grocer expects to spend about £175m this year to further increase capacity.