How giant factory run by robots has boosted business at Ocado

SALES at Ocado soared after it opened what it hopes will be the world’s largest robot-powered grocery warehouse.

Revenues jumped 11.5pc to £328.6m in the 13 weeks to September 2 after its warehouse in Erith, south east London, processed 20,000 orders in just one week. Its other automated warehouse in Andover took 15 months to generate the same number of orders.

Ocado believes the new warehouse has the potential to become the largest automated warehouse in the world at full capacity. It expects to eventually be able to process 200,000 orders a week, or £1.2bn of sales a year at the factory.

Shares rose 0.8pc, or 7.2p, to 919.8p. The stock was trading at under 400p at the start of the year.

Led by chief executive Tim Steiner ( pictured with lingerie-model girlfriend Patrycja Pyka), Ocado has earned the nickname ‘the Microsoft of retail’ after its pioneering technology helped bag deals with overseas supermarkets.

Finance boss Duncan Tatton-Brown admitted Ocado was struggling to hire staff quickly enough to support the contracts.