Ocado Christmas sales boosted by own-labels
12 January 2012 10:33
Online grocer has said that Christmas trading was "encouraging", in a rare good-news story for retail sales in January.
In the seven trading days to Christmas, gross sales were up 23.8% from 2010 at £18.7 million, with customer orders up 21.8% on 2010, boosted by an 88% rise in own-label items in the four trading weeks to Christmas.
Meanwhile, larger Christmas orders and a pause in site development works at the company's Hatfield Customer Fulfilment Centre allowed for increased operational capacity. The company said that development work at the site would continue throughout the rest of the first quarter and the company expects year-on-year growth for the quarter to be in line with the fourth quarter of financial year 2011.
Tim Steiner, CEO, said: "We are pleased with the performance of the CFC during the four weeks to Christmas as demonstrated by the 21.8% increase in orders. Our staff went the extra mile to ensure customers received deliveries on time and in full. Looking ahead, we remain focused on delivering growth in orders at our Hatfield warehouse while maintaining high customer service standards. The welcome absence of snow allowed us to release additional delivery slots to customers in the days leading up to Christmas."
Andrew Bracey, chief financial officer of Ocado, added: "This was encouraging trading for December as a whole and particularly the seven days to Christmas, with sales growth of 23.8%. This was accompanied by good operational performance throughout the trading period. In giving guidance for the quarter, we have taken account of likely customer behaviour against the backdrop of the prevailing economic conditions and forecasts; we remain optimistic about continued sales growth and believe Ocado will remain a strong performer in the sector."
Retail news is updated every weekday and is provided courtesy of: 
