Member Article

Ocado sees 15% sales increase as customer base continues to grow

Ocado has seen a significant increase in its retail sales, as it reports new customer growth of over 30% year on year from a ‘broader set of customer demographics.’

The online retailer, which primarily covers the South East region, saw pre-tax profit dip to £7.2m for the 24 weeks ending 17 May 2015, compared to £7.5m for the same period last year.

The grocery seller has also seen a fruitful return on its partnership with Morrisons.com, providing ecommerce solutions for the struggling retailer. The website reached around £200m in annualised run-rate sales after 12 months of trading.

Last month, the retailer announced plans to develop robots for picking and packing, having filed an application to the US Patent and Trademark Office for a robotic system that will remove the need for aisles to let people and machines travel around a warehouse.

Ocado has introduced 10,000 new products since the first half of 2014, with particular focus on its specialised vegetarian and vegan range.

Tim Steiner, Chief Executive Officer of Ocado, said the company is benefitting from a shift in habits in favour of online grocery shopping: “The channel shift towards online grocery shopping continued during the period, with the broader grocery market remaining characterised by intense price competition and deflationary pressures.

“Against this backdrop, our relentless focus on customer satisfaction continues to drive customer numbers and like-for-like sales ahead of the online grocery market.”

He notes that Ocado’s ‘resilient business model’ and ‘increasing operational leverage’ has resulted in an increase operating profit despite industry headwinds and heightened competitivity.

He concluded: “Our continuous commitment to constant innovation in technology not only allows us to give industry-leading service to our customers at home but to offer our end-to-end platform solution to retailers outside the UK. We are excited by the possibility and reiterate our target of signing a first agreement during 2015.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .