Ocado Delivery Races Ahead Of Rivals Sainsbury's And Tesco

Online delivery specialist Ocado said this morning that festive sales grew at double the rate of its supermarket rivals after it added capacity in its warehouses.

The firm, which launched a partnership with Morrisons last week, said that sales in the 6 weeks to January 5 rose 21.3 per cent. 

That accelerated in the final seven says when sales grew at 29 per cent with several days of £5 million sales a day, allaying fears that it might lose out to the relative advantage held by click and collect rivals in the final days.

That compared to online growth at Sainsbury's of 10 per cent in its 14 weeks to January 4 and an increase at Tesco of 11 per cent in the six weeks to the same day.

Ocado also said that sales in the final quarter of its last financial year ending December 1 increased 20.1 per cent, an acceleration on the previous period.

Chief executive officer Tim Steiner said: 'We are please with the progress in our underlying trading reflecting the further improvements to our propposition to customers and consumers' increasing their desire to shop online for their groceries.'

It launched its partnership with Morrisons on January 10 and said it added 'additional fulfilment capacity' in 2013.

But he added: 'While we are encouraged by this current trading, the retail environment remains both challenging and competitive, with consumer sentiment subdued, and we expect to continue growing broadly in line with, or slightly ahead of, the market.'