Online retailer Ocado swung to a loss and reported a fall in its retail revenue for FY2022 as the cost-of-living crisis created a “challenging year”.

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Ocado has reported a loss of £501m before tax for the 2022 financial year

The online supermarket reported a 3.8% drop in its retail revenue, down to £2.2bn for the 2022 financial year.

The retailer said it was affected by the cost-of-living crisis and lower-value baskets, even though it increased its market share and grew its customer base over the period.

Ocado reported a £501m loss before tax, £324m lower than in FY21. Depreciation and amortisation costs rose to £349m, a £110m increase as a result of 17 new CFC/Zoom sites opened over the past two years.

Group revenue remained flat at £2.5bn as revenue from its international solutions division doubled to £148m from £67m in FY21, benefiting from an increase in the number of live sites.

The EBITDA loss of the group was at £74m, compared with a profit of £61m last year. The retailer said this was due to the additional costs the group took on to support growth at Ocado Retail.

Ocado Group chief executive Tim Steiner said: “Over the last year every company has had its business model tested by a combination of macro-economic and geopolitical headwinds, and I am pleased that thanks to the creativity and commitment of my colleagues we have more confidence in our model than ever before.

“Ocado Retail, our UK joint venture with M&S, has shown its resilience against a backdrop of higher costs and smaller baskets, reflecting the Covid unwind and the UK cost-of-living crisis, by growing customer numbers and increasing online market share. As the Covid unwind fades and customer growth continues the business will start to recover the fixed costs of recent capacity commitments.”

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