Ocado Retail saw sales surge during its third quarter, as the final 13 weeks of it carrying groceries for Waitrose saw turnover and order numbers rise.
Turnover at Ocado Retail grew 52% year-on-year in the 13 weeks ending 30 August to £587.3m, compared to £386.4 million in the 13 weeks ending 1 September 2019.
The average number of orders per week rose 9.6% from 315,000 in the same period in 2019 to 345,000 in the third quarter of 2020. It said the average order size was £141, down on the Covid lockdown peak, but still above average compared to last year.
Ocado Retail switched to delivering M&S groceries on 1 September with an initial range of 4,400 food products replaces some 4,000 Waitrose products.
Ocado Retail’s chief executive Melanie Smith said: “Our aim is to continue to set the bar as we begin again to welcome new customers who are seeing the benefits of online shopping in ever greater numbers and we remain focused and on track to increase capacity by 40% through to 2021.”
Ocado Retail is now a 50:50 joint venture between Ocado Group and Marks & Spencer Group.
