 rose nearly 7 percent in early trade on Tuesday, aided by a strong growth in both customer demand and profit.){kind=link}
Shares in online supermarket Ocado (LON:OCDO) rose nearly 7 percent in early trade on Tuesday, aided by a strong growth in both customer demand and profit.
Ocado’s active customer base grew by almost 14 percent in the 52 weeks to 27th November 2016, with average orders per week seeing an 18 percent hike to an average of over 230,000 orders per week.
In a statement, the company also disclosed a 3.3 percent rise in full-year core earnings and said it was well positioned for growth. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation hit £84.3 million, below the £85.7 million expected by analysts and £81.5 million made the year before.
Gross full-year retail sales grew 13.6 percent to £1.27 billion pounds, held back by a 13.1 percent growth slowdown in the fourth quarter.
However, there was a noticeable absence of any mention of the long-awaited overseas deal. Tim Steiner, Chief Executive Officer of Ocado, said:
“We commenced operations at our new Customer Fulfilment Centre in Andover, which has the first installation of our new proprietary technology. At the same time, we have made good progress in improving the efficiency and throughput of our existing operations, increasing our capacity from existing facilities by over 20,000 weekly orders. These developments position us well for future growth, whilst improving our returns and enhancing the service we can offer our customers.
“In this ever evolving retail environment, we look forward to further developing our capabilities through innovation, creating the next generation eCommerce capabilities that will ensure our offer remains compelling for both retail and OSP customers alike.”
When it released its full-year results in February last year, Ocado said it was in “advanced discussions with multiple potential international partners” for the platform, adding it expected to sign “multiple deals” in the medium term.
However Ocado did launch another site, this time geared towards the premium beauty sector. The site, Fabled, also has a flagship store in London.
Shares in Ocado (LON:OCDO) are currently up 6.42 percent at 260.10 (1947GMT).