Ocado warns prices are on the rise as growth steadies

Ocado today warned shoppers that prices have begun to rise as the pace of sales growth steadied in its first quarter.

Sterling’s fall since the Brexit vote has driven up the cost of imported goods, and the online grocer said that was starting to feed through.

Finance chief Duncan Tatton-Brown said so far prices have gone up “slightly” at Ocado, which follows competitors’ price moves.

Its retail sales grew 13.1% to £352.4 million in the three months to February 26, the same rate as the previous quarter. It remained confident that it would grow ahead of the online grocery market and “substantially” ahead of the market overall. Shares jumped 10.4p, or 4%, to 268.6p.

Shore Capital’s Clive Black, a long-time Ocado critic, called the result “unspectacular” given the company’s “relative immaturity, total access to a growth channel and its third Customer Fulfilment Centre [is] now open”.

“We see this as good and steady sales growth from Ocado but not progressive,” he added.