Ocado has achieved “another record-breaking Christmas” with its highest-ever level of sales over the festive trading period, along with a strong performance throughout 2024.
Over the fourth quarter, Ocado Retail’s revenue grew 17.5% to £715.8m driven by “reassuringly good value” enabled by the group’s technology.
Volumes on Ocado.com grew 17% year on year, with average orders per week growing by 16.9% to 476,000.
Active customer base growth over this period increased 12.1% to reach 1.1 million active customers.
In the full year to December 1, 2024, retail revenue grew 13.9% to £2.68bn with volumes on Ocado.com rising 12.9%.
The retailer highlighted that it has offered “even better choice” and understands that Marks & Spencer products bring “new customers to Ocado.com”.
Its investment in price meant that more prices were lowered in 2024 through “Big Price Drops” and now matches baskets on 10,000 like-for-like products with Tesco through the Ocado Price Promise.
Ocado said it has “confidence” that the business will continue to grow sales and volume in the new financial year along with improved operational efficiency, scale, and moving towards a high mid-single digit adjusted EBITDA margin.
Ocado Retail chief executive Hannah Gibson said: “2024 was a year of strong growth. In the fourth quarter, we accelerated sales again – reaching 500,000 orders per week for the first time, at the end of November.
“We’ve achieved this growth by being laser-focused on customer service and delivering unbeatable choice, unrivalled service and reassuringly good value to the households and families that we serve.
“We’ve made a series of significant improvements – including making sure customers can buy all their favourite M&S products, ensuring our service is near perfect, shifting our value perceptions as customers realise how much we’ve moved on price and helping new customers discover Ocado.
“As we enter the next phase of our strategy, we are excited about the future of online grocery and our role in shaping it. Priorities for this year are raising the bar again in our leading customer proposition, making further progress on improving profitability and transitioning the business onto new technology platforms.”
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