Ocado spent £207m on property, plant and equipment in the first six months of the year, as it expanded its logistics network.
The online retail specialist spent 34% more on property than in the same period last year, when it spent £154m.
It opened three customer fulfilment centres in the first half, versus two in the corresponding period last year.
These include a “mini” centre in Bristol, which it said was operating at more than 50% of its capacity of 30,000 orders a week, four months after going live. It was launched as part of Ocado’s Smart Platform, which it hopes will enable customers to get their orders faster.
The company said 56 customer fulfilment centres are committed and 15 are being built outside the UK. Ocado expects to open five this year and nine next year.
The FTSE 100 company was giving the update alongside its half-year results, in which it reported that retail revenue rose by 19.8% to £1.2bn during the period and overall turnover increased by 20.4% to £1.3bn.
Core profit was £61m, a 41% increase on the same period last year. But while retail has performed better than expected, its tech arm is predicted to contribute £30m less to profit than originally anticipated, leading the company to maintain its full-year forecast.
The company also announced a new deal to develop Alcampo’s online business in Spain, which will use the Ocado Smart Platform to help expand its online business across the country.
Under the deal, the pair will build a customer fulfilment centre to serve the Madrid region from 2024, with additional centres to follow.
Ocado has signed partnership deals for its robotic order-picking technology with supermarket groups including Kroger in the US, Casino in France and Aeon in Japan. In the UK, it has a tie-up with Marks & Spencer.
Ocado chief executive Tim Steiner said: “We continue to build strong partnerships with our clients and win new clients, based on our 20-year experience as a technology company and a food retailer, and these partnerships are the bedrock of our business.”
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