Ocado has posted a 17.5% revenue growth in Q4 to £715.8m as the online grocer enjoyed a strong Q4 trading period before Christmas.

Volumes on the group’s website have also grown 17% year-on-year, while average orders per week climbed by 16.9% to 476,000.

Ocado suggested that products made available through its joint venture partner, Marks & Spencer (M&S), helped to drive its active customer base growth by 12.1%, towards 1.1 million active customers.

This growth was boosted by order volumes as average basket sizes remained stable and average selling prices were flat, as Ocado continued to invest in price and value ahead of the market.

Ocado’s full year retail revenue, covering the 12 months to 1 December, grew by 13.9% to reach £2.7bn, as CEO, Hannah Gibson, stated that 2024 had been a “year of strong growth” for the group.

“In the fourth quarter, we accelerated sales again – reaching 500,000 orders per week for the first time, at the end of November,” Gibson highlighted.

“We’ve made a series of significant improvements – including making sure customers can buy all their favourite M&S products, ensuring our service is near perfect, shifting our value perceptions as customers realise how much we've moved on price and helping new customers discover Ocado.

“As we enter the next phase of our strategy, we are excited about the future of online grocery and our role in shaping it.”

Investment director at AJ Bell, Russ Mould, commented that Ocado’s joint venture with M&S “finally seems to have cracked the recipe for success”.

“This performance should settle some nerves at M&S given relationships have been fragile between the two partners,” Mould commented. “The key challenge is to sustain this momentum. Now the ship has been steadied, the big question is what happens to the joint venture longer-term.

“M&S is on a roll with its whole business and might take the view that it would prefer to have full control over its online food delivery service. If that happens, M&S would still be reliant on Ocado technology and would have to pay royalties. Longer-term, it could potentially look to develop systems in-house or use another partner as an alternative.

“The big unknown is whether M&S feels the venture is sufficiently robust enough to take the leap into the unknown and go solo.”

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