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LONDON, Sept 13 (Reuters) - British online grocer Ocado reported a 13.6 percent rise in quarterly retail salesbut said the intensely competitive market was causing marginpressure and cautioned it would not go away any time soon.
The firm, whose range includes products supplied by upmarketsupermarket Waitrose, said gross retail sales were286.4 million pounds ($381.6 million) in the 12 weeks to August7, its fiscal third quarter, up from 252 million pounds in thesame period last year.
That compares to first half growth of 13.9 percent.
"As the market remains very competitive, we are seeingsustained and continuing margin pressure and there is nothing tosuggest that this will change in the short term," said ChiefExecutive Tim Steiner.
But he said he still expected Ocado to grow ahead of theonline grocery market, and substantially ahead of the marketoverall.
He highlighted a 19 percent increase in average orders perweek to 226,000 in the period - Ocado's best performance in overfive years.
Ocado shares have had a rollercoaster ride since theydebuted at 180 pence in 2010.
Analysts see winning international agreements with retailersin north America and western Europe as the key influence on Ocado's stock market valuation. However, the company missed itstarget of securing a deal by the end of 2015 and is still toannounce one.
Last month Ocado did, however, agree an amended distributiondeal with Morrisons, Britain's No. 4 supermarket, whichboosted sentiment in the stock.
Its shares have increased 11 percent over the last month andclosed Monday at 322 pence, valuing the business at 2 billionpounds ($2.7 billion).($1 = 0.7506 pounds) (Reporting by James Davey; editing by Kate Holton)
