Last checked at 
* Retail JV with M&S sees sales growth moderate to 32% in Q4
* Ocado raises FY earnings forecast to "over 70 mln stg"
* New capacity coming in 2021
(Adds detail)
By James Davey
LONDON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - British online supermarket Ocado
Group raised its annual earnings forecast for the
second time in two months on Thursday as the COVID-19 pandemic
continued to generate huge demand for home delivery.
Ocado forecast earnings before interest, tax, depreciation
and amortisation (EBITDA) of "over 70 million pounds" ($93
million) versus a previous forecast of "over 60 million pounds".
EBITDA in 2018-19 was 43.3 million pounds.
The group, whose shares have soared 82% this year, said
revenue at its retail joint venture with Marks & Spencer
rose 34.9% to 579.6 million pounds in its fourth quarter to Nov.
29.
Growth moderated from 52% in the third quarter, which Ocado
said reflected the seasonality of the quarter.
Average orders per week rose 3% to 360,000, and average
order size was 133 pounds.
In September, the Ocado Retail venture switched from using
Waitrose to M&S products.
"Customers continue to embrace the full M&S range with the
biggest selling lines coming from everyday essentials in the M&S
fresh categories," Ocado said.
Ocado said sales and earnings growth in the 2020-21
financial year would be determined by the extent to which it
returns to a "normalised" trading week and when planned
additional capacity goes live.
It plans to open three new warehouses in 2021, which will
ultimately provide 40% more capacity.
The group's capital-intensive and centralised fulfilment
model has restricted its ability to quickly increase its
capacity during the pandemic.
In contrast, Britain's big four grocers - market leader
Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons
- were quickly able to adapt their predominantly
store-pick models to boost capacity, enabling them to deliver
faster growth and win share of the online market.
Online grocery shopping has doubled its share of the UK
market to nearly 14% since the start of the pandemic and Ocado
reckons it could reach 30% over the next few years.
($1 = 0.7497 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Paul Sandle and Mark
Potter)
