Online grocery platform saw its share price plummet by 16.5 per cent despite reporting a rise in revenue and a narrowing of losses.
The grocer saw a 14.1 per cent rise in revenues to £3.2bn and a loss before tax of £374.5m for the year to December 1, 2024 – down from £393.6m in 2023.
The company hailed a ‘strong’ set of financial results but its share price dropped 16.5 per cent from 330p to 278p.
Ocado is reported to be cutting 500 jobs in its technology teams as its focus turns to artificial intelligence.
Tim Steiner, CEO of Ocado Group, said: “In 2024, we delivered a shift in the potential of robotics and automation to improve retail supply chains. Our latest technologies have begun to roll out at scale to Ocado’s global partners.
“This marked a milestone for our technology, with the already market-leading productivity of an Ocado CFC (customer fulfilment centres) almost doubling over the course of a decade.
“At the same time, online continues to drive the greatest share of organic growth in the global grocery market. Our partners are well set-up to take advantage of this growth with Ocado’s technology, and we have a strong prospect pipeline across grocery, non-grocery and logistics.
“Ocado Retail in the UK continues to lead the way as consistently the fastest growing grocer in the market and reaching one million active shoppers for the first time. We have learned valuable lessons from our early global deployments.
“Over the past year we’ve significantly increased the number of Ocado experts embedded across our global partners, helping them to hone logistics operations and build new online strategies alongside the Ocado Smart Platform.
“These teams, combined with exciting new enhancements we are set to deliver in 2025, will drive faster growth, more efficient operations, and an even better quality of experience online for shoppers across 11 of the world’s biggest grocery markets.”
Adam Warby, chair of Ocado Group, said: “My first months as chair of Ocado Group have been busy and hugely engaging.
“I have spent time with shareholders, partners and teams across our business to understand how the board can support and work with them best during the continued evolution of Ocado.
“The business has made good financial progress this year. We have reached important milestones with the deployment of our Re:Imagined technologies and deepened our relationships with global partners. But there remains much for us to do.
“In FY25, Ocado’s board and management team are focussed on supporting our partners to drive further efficiencies and accelerate growth, continually improving our existing offering and expanding to new potential partners.”
Ocado has predicted technology solutions revenue growth in FY25 of 10 per cent.