Ocado enjoys festive bounce

Online grocer Ocado enjoyed a festive surge with gross sales in the seven trading days to Christmas rising 23.8% from the same period in 2010.

Ocado, which sells it own and Waitrose-brand food, said customer orders were up 21.8% from 2010 at 450,700 in the four-week run up to Christmas. Gross sales increased 16% to £59.0m in the same period.

The group, which suffered capacity problems at its distribution centre two months ago, said is operational performance during the Christmas week returned towards previous high levels, with 97% of orders on time or early compared to 94% in 2010.

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Chief financial officer Andrew Bracey said, "This was encouraging trading for December as a whole and particularly the seven days to Christmas".

Gross sales increased 10.8% to £198.2m for the 16 weeks to 27 November 2011 versus £178.9m in 2010. Average orders per week in the quarter increased 13.5% to 113,200.

Chief executive officer Tim Steiner commented, "Looking ahead, we remain focused on delivering growth in orders at our Hatfield warehouse. The welcome absence of snow allowed us to release additional delivery slots to customers in the days leading up to Christmas."

Looking ahead Bracey added, "In giving guidance for the quarter, we have taken account of likely customer behaviour against the backdrop of the prevailing economic conditions and forecasts; we remain optimistic about continued sales growth and believe Ocado will remain a strong performer in the sector."

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