Ocado Q3 retail revenues damaged by fire
However, the £517.5m in group revenues still represented a 54% two-year spike for the 13 weeks ended 29 August 2021
Ocado Retail, the joint venture between Ocado Group and Marks and Spencer Group, saw Q3 FY21 revenues fall 10.6% year-on-year as its Erith CFC fire disrupted operations.
However, the £517.5m in group revenues still represented a 54% two-year spike for the 13 weeks ended 29 August 2021.
The group reported a performance “in line with expectations” for the first six weeks of the quarter, with revenues marginally down 1.8%.
Yet, following the Erith CFC fire on 16 July, revenues for the remaining seven weeks of Q3 dropped 19% with 300,000 orders equating to £35m of revenue lost.
Tim Steiner, chairman at the company, said: “Despite the challenges we faced in the period, I am delighted to report that Ocado Retail is performing well, improving the customer experience even further and continuing to grow the business in a post-lockdown environment.
“I would like to pay tribute to the efforts of all my colleagues who worked so hard to get Ocado back to business so quickly following the fire in Erith. The success of these efforts demonstrated again the resilience of Ocado and its people.”
Looking ahead, the group said that it expects to deliver strong revenue growth in FY22, extending its total capacity to roughly 700,000 orders per week.
Melanie Smith, CEO at Ocado Retail, added: “We are looking forward to another bumper Christmas and an exciting year of growth in 2022.”
