Ocado has passed a sales milestone as Christmas nears

Ocado chief executive Hannah Gibson flagged the achievement in a LinkedIn post.

She wrote: “I’m excited to share that we’ve hit a new record peak of 500,000 orders per week!

“It’s a real privilege to provide the weekly shop to half a million households – that’s a lot of customers who have filled their fridges and cupboards, and fed their families, with the food we delivered straight to their doors last week.”

Ocado Retail, which is a joint venture between Ocado Group and Marks & Spencer, has been focusing on building its business in the aftermath of the online boom during the pandemic after which performance became much more subdued.

However, Ocado has been growing under Gibson’s leadership. The etailer has been leading the pack according to grocery market monitor Kantar’s data. The most recent figures for the 12 weeks to November 3 showed that Ocado again topped the growth ranking as sales climbed by 9.5%.

Ocado has been pursuing a strategy of “unbeatable choice, unrivalled service and reassuringly good value”, and when she reported third-quarter figures in September, Gibson said: “We’re seeing the momentum of this, with more customers shopping with us more often, getting even better service at better value.”