Ocado today (26 June) said first-half profit before tax was “in line” with last year as the group booked a jump in sales.
The UK online retailer booked pre-tax profit of GBP0.2m (US$0.3m) on gross sales which were up 12% to GBP332.3m.
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EBITDA rose 4.5% to GBP14.9m, the company said in a regulatory filing. However, operating profit for the period to 13 May dropped from GBP2.4m to GBP1.7m due to increased marketing spending, higher distribution costs and other exceptional items.
Ocado’s performance in the second-half of last year was hit by bottlenecks at its distribution centres. The improved sales performance will offer some hope to investors that these issues are behind the company and it now has the capacity to handle the number of orders it receives.
Commenting on the results, chief executive Tim Steiner struck a cautiously upbeat tone suggesting the third quarter was “hard to predict” due to the impact of the Jubilee and Olympics. However, he added that the company does expect “sales growth to increase in the second half of 2012 overall”.
The firm also announced the appointment of former Fitness First CFO Duncan Tatton-Brown as its new chief financial officer from 1 September.
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By GlobalDataClick here to read analysts’ reactions to Ocado’s H1 results.
