Morrison deal helps Ocado

Strip out the one-off gain from Morrison and Ocado's underlying cash profits grew 34 per cent, while sales grew 10 per cent. That's still a decent performance, given the vicious price war being waged by mass-market supermarkets. Ocado isn't immune to these headwinds - sales growth slowed over the period - but volumes are still rising fast. Orders averaged 161,000 a week, up from 139,000 last year, while active customer numbers increased a tenth to 396,000.

Profitability was also helped by improved efficiency at both customer fulfilment centres. The second phase of construction at the Dordon site will be completed by the year-end, costing £41m and paid for in part by Morrison. Building works on a new, smaller factory in Andover should begin in the fourth quarter, costing £30m. In total, Ocado plans to spend £100m on capacity this financial year, excluding new sites.

As such, it has signed a new £100m three-year unsecured revolving credit facility. Meanwhile, spending on marketing and staff will increase in the second half, as Ocado tries to attract further interest from third parties in licensing its intellectual property.

Broker Numis Securities expects pre-tax profit of £12.9m for the full year, up from a £5.1m loss last year.