Ocado Retail sales growth slows in fourth quarter

Ocado Retail, the joint venture between Ocado Group and Marks & Spencer, posted a slight slowdown in fourth-quarter revenue on Thursday.

In the 13 weeks to 1 December, retail revenue rose 10.8% to £429.1m, in line with the company’s guidance but down a little from 11.4% growth in the third quarter.

Average orders per weeks were up 10.4% to 350,000 and the average order size was stable at £104.9, Ocado said.

Chief executive officer Melanie Smith said: "Another strong quarter for customer orders means that we remain the fastest growing grocer in the country. The collaboration between M&S and Ocado Group is working well.

"We have made good progress preparing for switchover date in September 2020, when the M&S food range will be available online for the first time. We are also planning fresh capacity, to offer customers more availability, and have new customer fulfilment facilities in Bristol and Purfleet, and a rebuilt state of the art facility at Andover, on the way. As a team, we could not be more excited."

At 0803 GMT, the shares were up 1.8% at 1,218.50p.