Pressure on online grocer to deliver deal

GROWING debt and falling profits have added to pressure on British online grocer ocado to finally close a deal with an international partner.

The company’s half-year results yesterday showed promising growth in customer numbers, orders and revenue but profits were down 18pc to £7.7m.

It was largely due to the firm’s investment in its online shopping platform and warehouses, which caused debt to rise from £14.6m to £102.4m.

The firm has yet to close a major licensing deal, but chief executive Tim Steiner said it was ideally placed to benefit from growing popularity of online shopping.

Internet retailer Amazon’s buyout of upmarket grocer whole Foods has focused minds on the other side of the Atlantic, with Steiner claiming the move had prompted calls from US supermarket bosses interested in using ocado’s online platform.

He said: ‘ These deals take months to get together, but we’ve seen an increase in conversations coming out of the US.’ A deal with a European retailer was announced last month but few details have been released.

ocado is under pressure from activist shareholder Crystal Amber, which wants it to become a technology company and focus on online software and high-tech warehouses. It has opened a robotic warehouse in Andover and plans another in London.

ocado said revenues were up 12pc to £660m for the first half of 2017, with average orders per week growing 15.5pc to 260,000.