UPDATE 1-Britain's Ocado sees retail sales soar 52% in latest quarter

(Adds detail)

LONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Ocado Group, the
British online supermarket, said its Ocado Retail joint venture
with Marks & Spencer saw revenue rise 52% in the 13
weeks to Aug. 30, with the COVID-19 pandemic generating huge
demand for online deliveries.

On Tuesday it reported third-quarter retail revenue of 587.3
million pounds ($755.9 million) versus 386.4 million a year
earlier.

The growth compares with 27.2% in its first half and a
second-quarter rate of over 40%.

Average orders per week rose 9.6% to 345,000, while an
average order size of 141 pounds was below COVID-related peaks
but above pre-crisis levels.

Online grocery shopping has doubled its share of the UK
market to 14% since the start of the pandemic and Ocado reckons
it could reach 30% over the next few years.

The fourth quarter started with Ocado Retail replacing
Waitrose products with M&S products from Sept. 1.

Ocado said customers have responded positively to the
switch, with demand for the new range driving both an increase
in the number of products in customer baskets and strong forward
demand.

It said the performance of Ocado Retail in the first three
quarters of the year, combined with the impact of operational
leverage in the retail business, suggested, given current
trends, full year 2020 core earnings (EBITDA) for Ocado Group of
at least 40 million pounds. It made 43.3 million pounds in 2019.

Shares in Ocado, up 84% this year, closed Monday at 2,355
pence, valuing the business at 17.5 billion pounds - more than
double the combined market capitalisation of Sainsbury's
and Morrisons.

($1 = 0.7770 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey, editing by Louise Heavens)