The British online supermarket firm Ocado is currently preparing its IPO. Ocado, claiming to be the “largest dedicated online supermarket by turnover in the world” has published its prospectus (PDF) on 284 pages and offers a deep look into the market for groceries via online channels.
Ocada has around 240,000 active customers who generated gross revenues of 427 million pounds in 2009 (2008: 341 million pounds, 2007: 291 million pounds). The EBITDA results have been positive for two years, nevertherless, operatively Ocado has been still writing down losses.
Via IPO, Ocado wants to raise fresh capital and are working towards a valuation of 1.18 billion pounds.
The company was founded by ex-investment bankers in 2000 and launched operations in 2002. Deliveries are made via a central warehouse and several distribution stations. With this infrastructure, Ocado can reach 66% of all British households. Ocado ranks as the fourth largest British online supermarket, behind Tesco, Sainsbury and ASDA.
John Lewis, the parent of the British grocery store chain Waitrose, is via its pension fund one of the largest shareholders of Ocado. Waitrose itself operates WaitroseDeliver; the Ocado prospectus mentions some details of an existing non-competition agreement between the two companies.
For interested parties, the prospectus is very illuminating. The corporate video provides further impressions.
A good overview of the European online market for groceries can be found on the E-commerce Lounge site (in German, GE/EN)
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Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, adapted for excitingcommerce.com by Jason Soo.
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