Ocado Retail Ltd, a joint venture between Ocado Group plc, and Marks & Spencer Group plc, has today announced its trading statement for the 13 weeks to 1 December 2019.
Highlights:
• Growth in Retail Revenue of 10.8%, in line with guidance
• Growth in Average orders per week of 10.4%
• Average order size stable
• Range review completed, confirming that M&S has substitutes at the same price or lower, and of the same quality or better, for the majority of those currently supplied by Waitrose (which represent just over 4,000 products out of the current total range of over 55,000). It's also anticipated that many more additional M&S lines will be added to the range
• Erith CFC continues to ramp and ended the period at over 70,000 orders per week with efficiency better than Hatfield CFC
Melanie Smith, Ocado Retail's CEO, (pictured) said, 'I am pleased to report further progress in bringing the Ocado offer to an ever increasing number of customers in the U.K.
'Another strong quarter for customer orders means that we remain the fastest growing grocer in the country. The collaboration between M&S and Ocado Group is working well.
'We have made good progress preparing for switchover date in September 2020, when the M&S food range will be available online for the first time.
'We are also planning fresh capacity, to offer customers more availability, and have new customer fulfilment facilities in Bristol and Purfleet, and a rebuilt state of the art facility at Andover, on the way. As a team, we could not be more excited.'
