Ocado approaching pandemic revenues
The British pure-play online grocery retailer Ocado seems to have been turning the corner of its post-pandemic malaise during the four consecutive decline quarters between Q3/2021 and Q2/2022.
For the last five quarters, the company has seen revenues grow. The growth has been accelerating during the last four quarters. Rapid inflation has helped the growth, which has grown significantly faster than Ocado revenues.
The decreasing growth for the average basket sizes illustrates the decline in volumes. All other main indicators (orders, active customers, basket values) are moving toward growth.
With the improving growth, Ocado has almost reached the pandemic time highs. For Q3, revenue this year was 1,6% lower than in Q3/2020.
In the trading update, Ocado highlighted the improved efficiencies of the Customer Fulfilment Centers:
opening of Luton CFC will enable doubling of capacity
expects the CFC to reach UPHs of up to 300
Purfleet opened in 2021 is regularly achieving 220
“In January we set out our Perfect Execution strategy, making sure every element of our customer proposition and our operating model is at its best. We are delivering on this plan and have great momentum in the business, with revenue growing faster in Q3 than in H1 and a return to positive volume growth in the last month of the quarter.”
