• Ocado Q4 revenue up 0.3%
• Average basket value declined 1.3%
• Started FY23 with record Christmas sales

Ocado reported a rise in sales but a decline in the average basket value in its trading statement for the 13 weeks to 27th November.

The online supermarket reported Q4 retail revenue of £549.4m, up 0.3% versus the prior year. This came as a result of average orders per week increasing 1.9% and reflecting a total 940,000 active customers at the end of Q4, up 12.9% year-on-year.

The increase in active customers helped offset reduced frequency in customer shopping compared to the pandemic period as well as the response to the cost-of-living crisis.

However, average basket value of £117 was down 1.3% and the average items per basket fell 8.3% to 45 items.

Elsewhere, full year revenue of £2.2bn was down 3.8% against difficult comparatives of pandemic relating shopping behaviours. Therefore, the grup expects close to break-even EBITDA, in line with its guidance.

Ocado added that they had started the FY23 strongly with record Christmas sales, up 15% over the five days before Christmas. Other supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s also reported strong growth over the Christmas period as the British public celebrated their first lockdown free Christmas since 2019.

“The year ahead will set us up to deliver strong sales and profit growth over the mid-term. In 2023 we will continue to strengthen and improve our leading customer proposition, including investing in value to help customers manage cost of living pressures, while keeping tight control of our costs.”

Hannah Gibson, CEO of Ocado.

Ocado enters the new year with strong momentum. While uncertainties remain, Ocado remains confident in delivering marginally positive EBITDA in 2023.