LONDON (dpa-AFX) - British online supermarket Ocado Group (OCDO.L) reported that its loss before tax for the 26 weeks ended 30 May 2021 narrowed to 23.6 million pounds from 40.6 million pounds in the prior year.
But loss attributable to owners of the company widened to 77.8 million pounds or 10.53 pence per share from 57.4 million pounds or 8.18 pence per share last year.
Revenue for the period increased 21.4% to 1.32 billion pounds from last year, reflecting the continued strong demand for Ocado Retail's customer proposition and the increased popularity of UK online grocery in response to Covid-19.
Retail Revenue grew by 19.8% or 21.9% on an underlying basis excluding Fetch driven by a continuation of the strong customer demand for online grocery.
Ocado said it has settled its litigation with its former COO Jonathan Faiman and former Head of Transformation Jon Hillary, and Project Today Holdings Limited, a competing company set up by Mr Faiman.
Faiman and Hillary have acknowledged in an Agreed Statement of Facts their breach of various contractual and fiduciary obligations to Ocado in connection with the misappropriation of Ocado confidential information and documents.
Ocado said it maintained full year outlook and does not expect a material change to consensus Group EBITDA forecast.
Meanwhile, Ocado Group plc and grocery retailer Auchan Retail have signed an agreement to partner with Ocado Solutions Limited to develop Alcampo's online business in Spain using the Ocado Smart Platform.
As per the deal, Ocado and Alcampo will initially build a Customer Fulfilment Centre to serve the Madrid region from 2024, with additional Customer Fulfilment Centres to be announced at future dates.
Alcampo will also leverage Ocado's In-Store Fulfilment (ISF) software across its hypermarkets nationwide to enable more efficient picking from stores. The agreement will cover both Alcampo's food and non-food business.
Ocado will also provide Alcampo with Ocado Smart Platform's end-to-end software platform and a comprehensive suite of engineering and support services to ensure the smooth launch and ongoing development of its ecommerce operations.
Ocado expects the deal to create significant long term value to the business. Ocado expects minimal additional capex in fiscal year 2021 with the majority of additional capex in the 18 months prior to the opening of the Customer Fulfilment Centre.
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