Neil Dennis(Reuters) British online grocer Ocado suffered a slowdown in retail sales growth in its latest quarter, hurt by a shortage of drivers, it said on Thursday.
Ocado, which last month secured its biggest overseas deal so far - a partnership with French supermarket Groupe Casino, said its retail sales rose 11.6% to £373.8m ($501.6m) in the 14 weeks to 3 December, its fiscal fourth quarter, having increased 13.1% in the previous quarter.
Average orders per week increased 11.1% to 280,000 and average order size rose 0.3% to £106.1.
Capacity shortage
“A shortage of capacity, with the lack of drivers in certain locations being the largest factor, restricted our sales growth,” said Chief Executive Tim Steiner.
“While this driver shortage has now been largely resolved, there was some short-term impact on average orders per week over the period.”
Market reaction
The shares did not react particularly badly to the news, dipping just 0.23% to 340.8p in early trade on the London Stock Exchange.