Ocado revenue climbs in third quarter
Online grocery retailer Ocado saw its revenue climb by 14.3% to £344.5 million in the 13 weeks to 27 August.
Retail revenue was up 13.1% to £312.7 million in the period.
The retailer also grew its average orders per week by 16% to 254,000. However, its average order size edged down 1.2% to £106.25.
Tim Steiner, Ocado’s chief executive, said: “We are pleased to report another strong quarter of growth. 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.”
The company has recently become the first UK grocer to offer its customers Amazon’s Alexa voice-activated tool to enable them to verbally modify their online grocery orders.
Ocado said it is scaling up capacity in its new customer fulfilment centre in Andover with the performance improving week by week. It is also preparing to open its fourth and biggest centre to date in Erith in 2018.
Steiner added: “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.”
