Ocado narrows losses as grocery sales surge

Ocado Group has narrowed its full-year losses as it capitalises on more shoppers choosing to order their groceries online.

The grocery technology giant’s loss before tax reduced 4.9% to £374.5m in the 52 weeks to 1 December, down from £393.6m.

Group sales rose 14.1% to £3.16bn, boosted by an 18.1% surge in revenue to £496.5m in its technology solutions and its logistics arm advancing 7.6% to £718m.

Ocado reported sales for its its retail business – a joint venture with M&S – jumped 13.9% in the period to £2.69bn, driven by 12.5% growth in orders per week to 442,000.

Adjusted EBITDA for Ocado Retail more than tripled during the year from £10.4m to £44.6m, while gross profit surged 14.7% to £914.3m.

The group said it “achieved significant improvements” to offer an unrivalled service, including improving product availability, increasing delivery slots and extending the shelf life of produce by an average of another half day.

Ocado Group chief executive Tim Steiner said: “In 2024, we delivered a shift in the potential of robotics and automation to improve retail supply chains. Our latest technologies have begun to roll out at scale to Ocado’s global partners.

“This marked a milestone for our technology, with the already market-leading productivity of an Ocado CFC almost doubling over the course of a decade. At the same time, online continues to drive the greatest share of organic growth in the global grocery market.

“Our partners are well set-up to take advantage of this growth with Ocado’s technology, and we have a strong prospect pipeline across grocery, non-grocery and logistics.

“Ocado Retail in the UK continues to lead the way as consistently the fastest growing grocer in the market and reaching 1 million active shoppers for the first time.

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