Ocado sees sales stumble but new warehouse hits 20,000 orders

ONLINE GROCER Ocado has posted a slowdown in retail sales growth, but hailed the success of its newest warehouse after it notched up 20,000 orders since opening.

The group said retail revenues rose 11.5 per cent over its third quarter to September 2, which marks a slowdown on the 11.7 per cent growth seen in its first half.

Despite the slight pull back on growth, Ocado said it remained within its predicted growth range for the full year of between 10 per cent to 15 per cent.

Average total orders per week rose by 11.4 per cent to £283,000, with the average value of customer orders staying largely flat at £106.26.

It cheered a good performance from its newest state-of-the-art warehouse in Erith, south-east London, which it said had processed more than 20,000 customer orders in the first 14 weeks since launch.

It said this took its other recently opened site in Andover, Hampshire, 15 months to achieve.

Erith has the potential to become the largest automated warehouse for online grocery in the world, at full capacity, it added. Tim Steiner, Ocado’s chief executive, said: “The new capacity from Andover and Erith, our robotic third and fourth warehouses, is helping meet consumer demand for our services and drive the channel shift which is transforming grocery retailing in the UK.

“We are proud to have opened our Erith Customer Fulfilment Centre this summer on time and on budget.”

Mr Steiner added the group was on track to deliver a raft of new robotic warehouses for retailer partners over the coming years.