Pureplay grocery retailer Ocado has posted sales growth as its retail business returned to profit for the full year ending December 2023.

Ocado van

Ocado has posted sales growth for the year ending December 2023

Ocado posted a group-adjusted EBITDA of £51.6m, up £125.7m from a loss of £74.1m in 2022.

EBITDA for Ocado Technology Solutions and Ocado Logistics was positive at £15.4m and £30.1m respectively, while Ocado Retail returned to a positive adjusted EBITDA of £10.4m after a loss of £4m in 2022.

Group loss before tax was £394m, which showed an improvement of £107m versus 2022.

The online grocery group said sales improved 9.9% to £2.8bn in the period as Technology Solutions posted a 44% rise in sales, followed by Ocado Retail and Ocado Logistics, which grew by 7% and 1% respectively.

Tim Steiner, chief executive of Ocado Group, said: ”In the current year, we expect our partner success programme to help put our partners well on the path to generating attractive returns from their investment in the Ocado Smart Platform, a key deliverable to drive orders for more capacity in their existing sites and additional future sites.

“This is, for now, the primary focus of the business and we are encouraged by the progress we are making in helping our partners get the best out of the technology that we have successfully installed for them.

“At Ocado Retail, we expect further progress on its trajectory to restore an industry-leading EBITDA margin over the mid-term. We are also confident in our ability to win new Ocado Intelligent Automation deals as we bring our solution to the non-grocery market.

“Future success will be driven by the characteristics that have always set Ocado apart: our ability to solve some of the most difficult engineering challenges in the market, our capacity to innovate at pace and our discipline to turn vision into reality.

“I’m confident that we will turn these qualities into faster growth, stronger cash flows and higher returns, in the current financial year and beyond.”