Warehouse fire fuels Ocado losses

Ocado’s annual loss has more than quadrupled owing to widening costs including the price paid for the destruction by fire of a warehouse. The online grocer’s pretax loss for the year to the end of December increased to £214.5m from £44.4m a year earlier. Group revenue rose by 9.9% to £1.76bn. Ocado spent a net £88m in exceptional costs related to the fire at its warehouse in Andover, Hampshire. However, despite the loss of capacity triggered by the Andover fire, retail revenue rose by 10.3% to £1.62bn. UK solutions and logistics revenue increased by 7.8% to £583.2m. The fire occurred in February 2019 and destroyed the Andover warehouse building, machinery and all inventory held on site. To send feedback, e-mail anna.ward@egi.co.uk or tweet @annaroxelana or @estatesgazette