// Ocado Retail posts retail revenue of £549.4m, up 0.3%, in the 13 weeks to November 27
// The business held its guidance for the 2022 financial year but said that it expects earnings to fall as well as customers’ basket sizes in the first half of fiscal 2023
Ocado retail has backed its 2022 guidance after reporting robust fourth-quarter sales and said it has started the new fiscal year with a record Christmas performance.
The online grocer and retail technology specialist said that in the 13 weeks to November 27 retail revenue came to £549.4m, up 0.3% versus the same quarter last year, below Ocado’s prediction of mid-single digit sales growth.
As a result, the business held its guidance for the 2022 financial year but said it expects earnings to fall as well as customers’ basket sizes in the first half of fiscal 2023
The company said that active customers rose 12.9% on the year to 940,000, although this was partially offset by fewer items being purchased per order due to the cost-of-living crisis.
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Looking ahead, the company said that fiscal 2023 started strongly, with sales up 15% over the five days before Christmas, and orders up 13%, including the highest level of orders ever recorded in a single day (more than 72,000)
As reported by Nielsen, Ocado Retail continues to grow its share of online grocery, increasing to 12.3% by the end of the quarter, up from 11.7% in the prior year, as it attracts increasing numbers of customers who tried online grocery for the first time during Covid and who are now looking for the best customer experience online.
Ocado retail chief executive Hannah Gibson said: “This year we delivered our biggest ever Christmas for our customers at Ocado. A huge thank you to all my colleagues for making this possible. We now have close to 1m active customers, our largest ever customer base and we see huge potential to convert those who have now trialled online shopping elsewhere to become Ocado customers.
“The year ahead will set us up to deliver strong sales and profit growth over the mid-term. In 2023 we will continue to strengthen and improve our leading customer proposition, including investing in value to help customers manage cost of living pressures, while keeping tight control of our costs.
“We will also be doing much more to unlock the potential of our partners, combining the benefits of Ocado’s technology with the magic of M&S products.”
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