Ocado Delivered a Strong Christmas

All that December snow may have hurt most retailers, but Web-based grocer Ocado delivered strong Christmas results, with sales 27% higher than in 2009. Its Christmas week sales were an astonishing 40% higher than in 2009.

Ocado has yet to deliver solid profits, however, and its share price had been languishing until the December results were announced and the market heard rumours of a possible takeover by Morrisons, which has apparently been interested in launching its own Internet grocery service.

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail reports that some Ocado customers were confused and unhappy over the site's new look (above), unveiled at the start of the new year.

Ocado is active on Twitter and on Facebook but so far it has only a few thousand followers/"likes" on each, which is surprising, given that it's an Internet-based business. Waitrose has many more Twitter followers, and Sainsbury's has twice as many (14,000) as Waitrose. In fact, Sainsbury's Facebook page has 82,000 "likes."

What's ahead for Ocado in 2011?