AO World reports profitability on track for 2021 despite heavy losses

AO World has insisted it is still on track to be profitable by FY21 despite reporting a group operating loss of £16.2m up from £12m the previous year.

The online electronics retailer has posted its full-year results for the period ending 31 March in which adjusted EBITDA was -£3.4m, a wider loss than the -£2.1m recorded in 2017. However the figure was better than analysts’ average forecast of a £-4m.

On a revenue basis in the UK and Europe AO World posted a double digit growth of 13.6% to £796.8m up from £701.2m in 2017.

AO World also reported strong growth in its ecommerce with website sales for the UK up 8.7% to £606.6m.

The company said UK growth “continued to be resilient against a backdrop of a weaker UK electricals market”.

Steve Caunce, CEO, said: “FY18 has been another year of good progress for AO. Over the year we have continued to evolve our purpose to ensure it is suitable for the AO of today: to have the happiest customers by relentlessly striving for a better way.

“Our consistently high NPS scores and our amazing Trustpilot achievement in the UK proves we are firmly on track. We have continued to successfully launch new categories across our territories, and our UK recycling facility became fully operational, building upon our vertically integrated infrastructure.

“In the UK we have maintained market share in our core UK MDA business in a very competitive market and have performed well in the second half of the year with limited marketing expenditure demonstrating the asset of our customer base as it repeats and recommends AO.

“Our European operations continue to build scale and confidence as we remain on track to achieve our FY21 profitable run-rate objective.”