UK-based online retailer Ocado has issued a trading statement for the 22 weeks to 30 April 2017, in which it posted gross sales of £600.5 million – a 24.7% increase on the same period in the previous year.
Ocado issued the statement ahead of its planned half-year results on 5 July due to the launch of an offering of senior secured notes and the amendment and extension of the business's revolving credit facility.
Group EBITDA was £37.6 million, a 20.5% increase, while profit before tax stood at £6.7 million, a 45.7% increase.
The period in question is not a direct, like-for-like comparison, however, with the corresponding period in the previous year containing 20 weeks instead of 22 weeks.
Order Size
The average order size was £108.81 in the 2017 period – a decrease of 1.6%, compared to £110.60 in the 2016 period – the company said. 'The change was due to a reduction in number of items per order due to increased customer-order frequency and a reduced number of multibuy promotions, partly offset by an increase in average price per item."
Ocado noted that the arrangement with UK retailer Morrisons contributed £45.7 million of revenue in the 2017 period, which was 25.9% higher than the corresponding period in 2016.
Commenting on the results, Bruno Monteyne of Bernstein Research said, "EBITDA of £37.6 million is in line with our expectation of £37.4 million. We are 3.5% below consensus, implying that actual EBITDA is running 3.0% below consensus. Adjusting our model for the latest data puts us 3.0% behind consensus EBITDA in 2017, and 12.1% below in 2018."
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
