Ocado saw a rise in sales of 7.2% to £569.6m in the third quarter as shoppers looked to benefit from its Big Price Drop campaign.
Following the series of price cuts on over 500 items including Heinz Beans, Walkers Ready Salted crisps and M&S Oakham Gold chicken breast fillets, the online grocer’s average weekly orders are up 1.9% to 381,000.
In July, Ocado Group CEO Tim Steiner said the joint venture with M&S was “not where we wanted it to be”, while M&S chairman Archie Norman added that he was “not happy” with the retailer’s performance in the first half of 2023.
However, the grocer saw a return to positive volume growth in the last month of the quarter, with the average basket value up 4.2%.
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As part of its Perfect Execution Programme, Ocado said that on time and full “perfect deliveries” remained at high levels.
While its average selling price increased 8.4% year on year, Ocado noted that this was “considerably lower than market inflation“.
Ocado Retail CEO, Hanna Gibson, said: “It has now been a year since I joined Ocado Retail and in January we set out our Perfect Execution strategy, making sure every element of our customer proposition and our operating model is at its best.”
She added that Ocado is looking to “deepen” its collaboration with M&S, with “hundreds of new M&S lines set to launch in the autumn”.
In looking ahead, Gibson said: “The continued progress in Q3 underpins our confidence in delivering our FY23 guidance of mid-single digit revenue growth and full year profitability, and we have started the final quarter positively.”
Ocado is also set to open its new robotic customer fulfilment centre in Luton today, “with new innovations that will enable huge leaps forward in fulfilment productivity and a better experience for our customers”.
Gibson added that the opening in Luton will enable the retailer to double productivity versus its first generation Hatfield site.
