Last checked at 
LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - British online grocer Ocado said on Wednesday sales growth in December hadcontinued at the rate it achieved in the final quarter of its2013-14 financial year.
The firm, whose range includes products supplied by upmarketgrocer Waitrose, said gross retail sales in Decemberrose 14.8 percent year-on-year.
That compared to a rise of 14.9 percent in the previousquarter.
Ocado said that on its biggest day leading up to Christmas,sales were nearly 6 million pounds ($9.1 million), up over 15percent on the previous year.
In the seven days to Christmas its fulfilment centresprocessed nearly 40 percent more items for Ocado.com andMorrisons.com than over the same period last year.
Ocado has not made an annual pretax profit since it wasfounded in 2000 but analysts are forecasting one of about 11.5million pounds for its 2013-14 which ended Nov. 30.
Shares in Ocado, down 24 percent over the last year, closedTuesday at 409.9 pence, valuing the business at 2.4 billionpounds.
Market leader Tesco said last week its grocery homeshopping sales increased 12.9 percent over the six weeks to Jan.3, while Sainsbury's were up 6 percent in its latestquarter.
Morrisons, a late entrant online through a supply deal withOcado, said online contributed 1.0 percent to its like-for-likesale performance in the Christmas trading period.
($1 = 0.6594 pounds) (Reporting by James Davey)
