Online supermarket Ocado has reported a strong first half with group revenues reaching £799.9m as compared with £713.8 for the same period in 2017.
The business had worked with Morrisons during the period to enable it to roll out its store picking capabilities and had also signed up three further international contracts – with Sobeys, ICA and Kroger, with work also underway for a customer fulfilment centre for Groupe Casino.
It commenced operations at its fourth UK customer fulfilment centre – the world’s largest – located in Erith, South London and expanded its ranges particularly in the organic, vegetarian and vegan categories. Ocado now accounts for some ten per cent of the UK’s total organic grocery sales to consumers. It attracted 679,000 active UK customers, up 12.8 per cent over 2017, with 291,000 orders a week at an average basket value of £108.18.
Tim Steiner, CEO, said: “This is a transformational period for Ocado. We have developed unique and proprietary technology to offer retailers an end-to-end operating solution for grocery retail that enables them to meet the changing needs of consumers. In the past six months, we have partnered with some of the world’s biggest, best and most innovative retailers to help them redefine the shopping experience for their own customers.
The business has also been quoted as saying that it plans to compete with Amazon’s two-hour delivery service leveraging its relationship with Morrisons. Morrisons is also the supplier for the Amazon Prime Now grocery delivery service.
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