* Q2 retail revenue growth accelerates from Q1
* Items per customer basket past the peak
* Suspends guidance for full year 2020
* Shares up 3%
(Adds detail, shares)
LONDON, May 6 (Reuters) - British online supermarket and
technology company Ocado said on Wednesday retail
revenue had soared 40.4% year-on-year in its second quarter so
far as shoppers in coronavirus lockdown sought deliveries to
avoid venturing out.
That compared to growth of 10.3% in its first quarter to
March 1, sending its shares up 3% at 0705 GMT, extending gains
for the year to 35%.
Britain has been on lockdown since March 23 but Prime
Minister Boris Johnson has said the country is past the peak of
the pandemic.
He is expected to set out a plan on Sunday on how it might
start gradually easing restrictions to allow a return to normal
life.
Ocado said it had adapted its platform and ramped up
capacity rapidly in order to meet unprecedented demand and was
now delivering significantly more groceries to UK households
than ever before.
It noted that the number of items per customer basket
appeared to have passed its peak but remained high, as more
normal shopping behaviour had returned.
The share of fresh and chilled products in the mix, relative
to ambient store cupboard items, was also returning to normal,
it said.
Ocado said it expected the long-term shift towards online
grocery to accelerate post the COVID-19 crisis.
But it highlighted uncertainties about the length of the
crisis, customer reaction immediately afterwards and its
long-term impact on customers' disposable incomes.
It said it had suspended its guidance for retail revenue for
full year 2020 until it could accurately forecast likely
outcomes.
Ocado's retail business is a joint venture between Ocado
Group and Marks & Spencer. Ocado's supply deal with
Waitrose will finish at the end of August, when it will be
replaced with M&S.
Ocado has a stock market capitalisation of 12.2 billion
pounds ($15.2 billion), which is more than the combined market
capitalisations of Sainsbury's, Britain's No. 2
supermarket group, and Morrisons, the No. 4 player.
The share price has mostly been driven by its
state-of-the-art robotic technology which has enabled it to win
partnership deals with supermarket groups around the world,
including Kroger in the United States, Casino
in France and Aeon in Japan.
In the second quarter Ocado delivered its first
international robotic warehouses, which it calls customer
fulfilment centres (CFCs), to Casino and Sobeys.
It said that despite the crisis it was not experiencing any
material delays in the delivery of future CFCs for Ocado
Solutions customers.
The group added that it has 1.2 billion pounds of cash on
the balance sheet.
Ocado investor Royal London Asset Management said it will
vote against the online grocer's pay report at Wednesday's
annual meeting, calling Chief Executive Tim Steiner's 58.7
million pound reward "excessive".
($1 = 0.8040 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Paul Sandle and Jan
Harvey)
Marks & Spencer (MKS)
Ocado (OCDO)
Sainsbury's (SBRY)
