Internet supermarket Ocado has announced wider loses, despite seeing its sales grow.
Ocado have registered a pre-tax loss of £3.8m for the 24 weeks to 19 May, but increased its average orders per week by 13.4% to 139,000.
The retailer has been well-placed to benefit from the online shopping boom and enjoys a tie-up with Waitrose which has allowed it to implement a low price promise- with products on promotion now accounting for around 35% of sales.
The firm, who has its headquarters in Hertforshire, recently announced a £216m deal with Morrisons which will see the Bradford based supermarket use Ocado for logistical support. The deal will enable it to launch an online grocery service by January 2014. .
Ocado, who has 360,000 active customers, was founded in 2002 by three Goldman Sachs bankers and has yet to announce an annual pre-tax profit.
Matt Piner, research director at Conlumino, stated his concern at the loss and said: “Doubts still remain that it will ever achieve significant profitability as a standalone business.”
Despite the disappointing figures, Ocado maintains that it will continue to improve its infrastructure and look to new opportunities for growth.
