Ocado chief disappointed by share performance as price continues falling

Tim Steiner, the chief executive of online grocer Ocado, admitted today that he was disappointed in the company's falling share price performance since its closely-watched stock market listing in July.

In a press conference this morning, Steiner told reporters he was not allowed to forecast when the company would start making profits but said that the consensus among analysts was 2011.

The share price fell again this morning, down 4.5% at 150p before 10am despite the company posting positive interim results.  

This morning’s results included gross sales growth over the last 36 weeks of more than 29% while the average number of orders per week also grew to 92,800 from 70,900 in 2009.

The only negative news was a fall in average order size to £113 from £114 over the last 12 weeks.

At the press conference Steiner fielded questions raised in a Morgan Stanley analyst note. Steiner said that the analyst’s claims that the Ocado business model would not grow at forecast rates was an 'outlier'.

He said that although only 11% of shopping trips to supermarkets involved customer spending of over £100, this was because of the physical problems of carrying that much shopping. He added that the average weekly spend per UK household was over £100 and that people would spend this in one go online.

During the conference questions were raised about Ocado's market share in the face of online competition from Tesco and Asda, as well as rumours that Morrisons may also move into the online market. Steiner was upbeat in the face of increased competition, saying it would bring more customers online, and that he was confident that the rate of growth would remain around 29-30%.

Steiner said that Ocado, which sells Waitrose and John Lewis products, would expand its own range, but said that no Waitrose products were being removed.