Ocado sales soar as it scales up fulfilment centres

Rising from £301.4m to £344.5m, the growth in group revenue was accompanied by a retail sales rise of 13.1% from £276.5m to £312.7m.

Average orders per week were up 16% to 254,000, although average order size dipped 1.2% to £106.25.

Boss Tim Steiner failed to disclose the identity of the European regional grocery partner that has signed up to use Ocado’s smart platform technology, but said he was “pleased” with the results.

He added: “Our industry-leading technology has continued to set the bar for customer service and satisfaction and we continue to grow sales at a rate significantly in excess of the average for our industry.

“As channel shift gathers pace, we need to take advantage of our industry leadership and so we are scaling up our capacity in our revolutionary new Customer Fulfilment Centre (CFC) in Andover with the performance of the facility improving week by week.

“At the same time, we are preparing our fourth, and biggest, CFC to date in Erith, set to open in 2018.

“These investments, while increasing some costs in the short term, will allow us to meet the rapidly growing demand for our services from UK consumers while allowing us to offer the very latest technology to current and future customers of our Ocado Smart Platform.”