Ocado sales growth accelerates after Andover fire recovery
Online supermarket Ocado reported accelerating growth in the third quarter after it secured an additional warehouse following a fire at the firm’s Andover site.
Retail revenue increased 11.4 per cent to £386.3m in the 13 weeks to 1 September, the company reported in a trading update this morning.
Read more: Firefighters put out blaze at another Ocado warehouse
Average orders per week grew 12.1 per cent to 314,000 as more slots became available.
The average order size dipped to £105.42, a decrease of 0.8 per cent, which the company said reflected more frequent purchases.
Ocado, which recently sealed a joint venture deal with Marks & Spencer, opened a fourth warehouse in Erith to allow extra capacity after its Customer Fulfilment Centre in Andover was damaged in a fire. The impact of the fire was expected to wipe two per cent off sales, and removed 10 per cent of group capacity.
The delivery giant reported a pre-tax loss of £142.8m in its latest half-year results in July, after the fire resulted in a £98.5m hit to the balance sheet.
“These first set of results from the joint venture between Ocado Group and M&S show the resilience of Ocado following the Andover fire and the momentum the business now has,” Melanie Smith, Ocado Retail chief executive said.
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“As we continue to enhance our offering and add more capacity in the UK, our leading partnership will deliver the very best experience to an ever-growing number of customers”.
The Ocado Retail joint venture will provide M&S with an online delivery service by September next year.
Main image credit: Getty