Ocado up on solid delivery figures

FTSE 100 grocery delivery firm Ocado (LON:OCDO) has seen its share price rise by 3.78% to 1,742.50p (as of 13:40 BST) after it said sales in its retail arm were up by 40% year-on-year during the second quarter. Management said that there were signs that demand patterns were trending back towards more normal levels.

CEO Tim Steiner commented: “First of all, I would like to thank my colleagues across the business for their hard work, dedication and perseverance. This continues to be a very challenging time for everybody in the world and we are committed to doing our part to help get through this crisis.

We are facing quite a different challenge to many, as we scale up Ocado.com to play its part in feeding the nation, and as we help our clients launch and roll out their online businesses more rapidly against a backdrop of a likely long term increase in demand for online.

Ocado remains in a strong position and while we should be grateful that our current challenges are around growth, expansion and increased demand, we have great empathy for all who are facing different challenges at this time. In retail, we are working with our small suppliers to make sure we pay them earlier than normal and we will work closely with any who are struggling“.