Ocado Retail has recorded another period of healthy sales growth, although the figure slowed slightly after average order sizes remained unchanged. The company, which is a joint venture with Marks & Spencer, also outlined details of its preparations to switch to selling M&S products next year.
In its fourth quarter to 1 December, Ocado Retail’s total revenue rose 10.8% to £429.1m. Whilst this was in line with company guidance, it was down from growth of 11.4% in the previous quarter.
Average weekly orders climbed 10.4% to 350,000, although average order size remained at £104.9.
Ocado will start delivering M&S products to its customers in September 2020 when its supply contract with Waitrose comes to an end.
The joint venture revealed today that it has now carried out a product range review which found that M&S has substitutes “at the same price or lower, and of the same quality or better”, for the majority of those currently supplied by Waitrose. These represent just over 4,000 products out of Ocado’s current total range of over 55,000. The firm said it anticipated adding many more additional M&S lines to the range.
Melanie Smith, Ocado Retail’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “The collaboration between M&S and Ocado Group is working well.
“We have made good progress preparing for switchover date in September 2020, when the M&S food range will be available online for the first time. We are also planning fresh capacity, to offer customers more availability, and have new customer fulfilment facilities in Bristol and Purfleet, and a rebuilt state of the art facility at Andover, on the way.”
NAM Implications:
- These are still enviable growth figures…
- Offering opportunities that should not be missed, in terms of finding ways of climbing aboard…
