Ocado’s retail sales climbed in its first quarter, despite the impact of wintry weather conditions in the final week. 

Ocado said grocery sales advanced 11.7% year-on-year to £363.4m in the 13 weeks to March 4. 

There was an 11.1% spike in average orders per week to 280,000. 

However, the grocer was hit by the nationwide snowy weather in the last week of the period, costing it around 1% of sales over the quarter.

It knocked about £1.5m from its profits, the retailer later said, as the so-called Beast from the East forced it to cancel orders and allow for slower deliveries.

Ocado also reported a slight decrease in average basket size – down 0.4% to £110.45. 

Chief executive Tim Steiner said the teams working on the first international deals recently struck by its Solutions business – with Sobeys and Casino – have been “active and making progress”.

He added: “We remain confident that [the] business will be able to do further deals with the momentum of new signings building over time.”

Reports of a third international deal in the works emerged last year, with Swedish grocer ICA cited as a potential partner.

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