Ocado's (OCDO) lucrative contract with Morrisons already pushed the online grocer into the black at the interim stage last July. Six months later, the same contract allowed Ocado to report its first ever full-year profit. Having started deliveries to customers a year ago, the £200m partnership with the supermarket chain added £45m to sales in 2013-14.
Ocado's dependence on the deal makes the ousting of Morrisons chief executive Dalton Philips a cause for concern: a new boss could look to renegotiate the terms of the existing deal. But Ocado chief executive Tim Steiner has insisted the partnership is safe.
In any case, even ignoring the Morrisons deal Ocado's underlying growth remained strong last year, with retail sales (excluding Morrisons fees and charges) up 15 per cent to £904m. Mr Steiner attributed that to an increase in active customers - up to 453,000 at the period-end, from 385,000 in 2013 - and thus an increase in average orders per week. However, there was a minor reduction in the average order size, which fell to £112.25 per "basket", from £113.53 in 2013.
Analysts at Numis Securities expect pre-tax profit of £12.7m this year and EPS of 2.1p, up from £10.1m and 1.7p respectively in 2014.
| OCADO (OCDO) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 428p | MARKET VALUE: | £2.51bn | |
| TOUCH: | 426-428p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 624p | LOW: 217p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | 345 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 37p | NET DEBT: | 46% | |
| Year to 30 Nov | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 516 | -12.1 | -1.6 | nil |
| 2011 | 598 | -2.4 | -0.1 | nil |
| 2012 | 679 | -0.6 | -0.5 | nil |
| 2013 | 792 | -12.5 | -2.2 | nil |
| 2014 | 949 | 7.2 | 1.2 | nil |
| % change | +20 | - | - | - |
Ex-div: na Payment: na | ||||
