Competitor Watch

Following a ‘transformational period’, Ocado has posted a pre-tax loss of £9m in the first half of this year.

The company is investing heavily in technology, capacity, and international expansion. It commenced operations at its new automated grocery fulfilment centre in Erith during the period, enabling an additional £200m of sales capacity.

The company said this has led to significant operational efficiencies, achieving the same level of throughput in three weeks as it took to achieve in 32 weeks at its Andover automated site.

Active customer numbers increased 13% while the company is currently achieving an average of 189 ‘drops per van’ (up from 182 at the end of December) as a result of increased customer density, improvements to routing algorithms and more Sunday deliveries.  

Ocado’s CFO hinted that the company was working on a rapid delivery service that could be offered through Morrison’s. ‘There's a massive opportunity to grow our existing business, to make it more efficient, to support Morrisons’, he said.

The company said it was also exploring applications outside the grocery market, ‘where our skills at moving things are just as useful as they are in the food market.’