Ocado hails record Christmas sales
Ocado Retail has praised strong Christmas sales, despite an underwhelming final quarter performance.
The retailer said it had seen a record festive period, with sales up 15% and orders up 13% in the five days up to Christmas. It also saw the highest level of orders it had recorded in a day, at over 72,000.
Ocado Retail is a joint venture between Ocado Group and Marks and Spencer.
Despite the stronger Christmas period, full year revenue for the year ending November 27 2022 (FY22) fell by 3.8% to £2.2bn. However, this was still higher than pre-Pandemic levels by around 40%.
Ocado said its fourth quarter revenue of £549.4m was up 0.3% against FY21, with a 1.9% year-on-year increase in the average orders per week to 382,000, reflecting a total number of active customers of 940,000 by the end of the year.
However average basket value, at £117, saw a fall of 1.3% on a year-on-year basis for the fourth quarter, although the retailer said this is due to a 7.6% increase in the average selling price per basket item which was offset by a 8.3% fall in average items per basket.
Hannah Gibson, Ocado Retail’s chief executive officer, said: “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.”