Ocado Retail Ltd, a joint venture between Ocado Group plc (LON:OCDO) and Marks & Spencer Group plc (LON:MKS), has announced 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 weeksQ1 2024 | 13 weeksQ1 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.
