OCADO GROUP
PLC
26 March 2024
Ocado Retail
Q1
Trading Statement
Strong volume growth and
market share gains
Ocado
Retail Ltd ("Ocado"), a joint venture between Ocado Group plc
("Ocado Group") and Marks & Spencer Group plc ("M&S"),
today announces its trading statement for the 13 weeks to 3rd March 2024
Highlights
Q1
2024
●
Volumes (total items) grew 8.1% year-on-year,
driving Q1 Retail revenue growth of 10.6%, to £645.3m.
●
Ocado Retail online market share (Nielsen) rose to
13.5% at the end of February, up 0.7% over the year.
●
Average orders per week of 414,000 grew 8.4%
compared with Q1 2023, reflecting strong growth in active
customers, up 6.4% to 1.02 million at the end of the
quarter.
●
Average basket value was up 2.1% while basket size
(number of items) was stable year-on-year.
●
Continued focus on pricing strategy resulted in
ASP growth of just 2.2%, significantly below the market - this has
translated to improvements in customer value perception
Key financial drivers
|
|
13
weeks
Q1 2024
|
13
weeks
Q1 2023
|
Year on year change (%)7
|
|
Retail revenue (£ million) 1
|
£645.3m
|
£583.7m
|
10.6
|
|
Volumes - total items (million)2
|
242.1
|
223.9
|
8.1
|
|
Average orders per week (000s) 3
|
414
|
382
|
8.4
|
|
Active customers (000s) 4
|
1,018
|
957
|
6.4
|
|
Average basket value (£) 5
|
125.47
|
122.94
|
2.1
|
|
Average selling price (£) 6
|
2.79
|
2.73
|
2.2
|
|
Average basket size (items)
|
45.0
|
45.1
|
(0.2)
|
Hannah Gibson, Ocado Retail's Chief Executive Officer,
said:
'We have made a strong start to the
year, building on the momentum we established in 2023 through the
progress of our Perfect Execution programme.
We are delivering improvements in
our proposition for customers, across unbeatable choice, unrivalled
service and reassuringly good value. During the first quarter, we
stepped up our efforts: enriching our product range with the strong
growth of core M&S grocery lines and the debut of Makers
Market, using our unique model to showcase incredible small brands;
further enhancing slot and product availability; and lowering the
price of 1,700 more products in our latest Big Price Drop promotion
alongside further expanding the Ocado Own Range.
Our strategy is resonating with
customers and volume growth is building well. There's still so much
more we can do and I'm looking forward to raising the bar even
further in 2024.'
Guidance
There is no change to the guidance
issued on 29 February with the Ocado Group FY23 results. This
guidance is summarised below:
Revenue: mid-high single digits
% growth
EBITDA: underlying EBITDA
margin of c.2.5% (underlying excludes Hatfield fees of £33m
p/a)
Ocado Group, on behalf of the joint-venture, will be hosting
an analyst conference call at 8.00am today.
Please use participant number: +44 (0) 33 0551
0200 and confirmation code: Analyst Call. A replay facility will be
available through an on demand link for 90 days following the
announcement.
Contacts
● Stephen
Daintith, Chief Financial Officer, Ocado Group plc, on +44 1707 228
000
● Chandler Benet,
Head of Investor Relations, on +44 1707 228 000
● Fraser Ramzan,
Head of Investor Relations, Marks and Spencer Group plc, on +44 20
3884 7080
● Martin Robinson
at Teneo on +44 20 7353 4200
About Ocado Retail
Online supermarket Ocado.com was
established in 2000 and is one of Britain's leading online
retailers, now a 50:50 joint venture between Ocado Group plc and
Marks & Spencer Group plc. Covering geographies comprising over
82% of UK households, every shopping bag is carefully packed in one
of seven distribution centres using market leading software and
technology. Shopping is then delivered directly to customers using
a network of regional spokes in brightly-coloured vans. With
award-winning mobile apps, Ocado Retail delivers a wide range of
products, including big-name brands, a range of quality M&S and
Ocado own brand products and a non-food selection. Thoughtful
service features such as colour-coded bags, digital receipts
provided in date order, reminder texts with your driver's name,
along with convenient hourly delivery slots complementing
award-winning customer service on email, phone and social
media.
Notes
1. Retail revenue
comprises revenues from Ocado.com and Zoom by Ocado
2. Volumes - total items
refers to results of Ocado.com
3. Average orders per
week refers to results of Ocado.com
4. Active customers are
classified as active if they have shopped at Ocado.com within the
previous 12 weeks
5. Average basket value
refers to results of Ocado.com
6. Average selling price
refers to Ocado.com and is defined as product sales divided by
total eaches
7. Growth percentage
calculated on a rounded basis
8. The figures used in
this announcement are unaudited
A copy of this trading update is
available on www.ocadogroup.com and
www.corporate.marksandspencer.com
Cautionary statement
Certain statements made in this
announcement are forward-looking statements. Such statements are
based on current expectations and assumptions and are subject to a
number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or
results to differ materially from any expected future events or
results expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements.
Persons receiving this announcement should not place undue reliance
on forward-looking statements. Unless otherwise required by
applicable law, regulation or accounting standard, Ocado does not
undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future developments or
otherwise.