Online retailer Ocado has posted a 15.1-per-cent increase in revenue in the first half of its financial year.
Gross sales increased by 13.9 per cent to £582 million, up from £511.9 million in the same period last year. Profit before tax is now at £8.5 million — a jump from last year's £7.2 million.
Chief executive officer Tim Steiner said that he felt “encouraged by the steady progress in the business, with volumes through operations, including the throughput for Morrisons, growing by 30 per cent".
He commented, “The market remains competitive with ongoing price deflation, but our increasing scale and operational efficiencies meant that we still grew profits.”
The CEO added that the online grocery market is growing and that the retailer expects this to continue.
Over 55 per cent of orders are currently being checked out using mobile devices, the retailer said. Active customers — that is, customers who have returned within a period of 12 weeks — are up 14.9 per cent, to 541,000, and new-customer acquisitions were up 11 per cent year on year.
Ocado’s own label has seen sales growth of up to 11 per cent, with an average of five own-brand products per customer basket.
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Aoife Lawless. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
