Ocado to invest an extra £30 million in technology to meet surging demand for online shopping
The online grocer saw underlying earnings for its retail arm more than treble to £148.5 million for the year to November 29, up from £40.6 million the previous year.
Group earnings, including its international business and UK solutions and logistics division – which provides services to the Ocado and M&S joint venture, alongside a contract with Morrisons – rose 68.8% to £73.1 million.
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Hide AdOn a bottom-line basis, it narrowed pre-tax losses to £44 million from £214.5 million as retail revenues raced 35.3% higher over the year.
It said it would keep spending on IT and its platforms, but cautioned retail sales growth over the current year would depend on Covid-19 restrictions.
Tim Steiner, chief executive of Ocado, said: “The rapid acceleration of many pre-existing trends in business and society has been a feature of the Covid-19 crisis and the dramatic channel shift in grocery is a clear example of this.
“The landscape for food retailing is changing, for good.”