Ocado has confirmed its new finance chief, with former Fitness First beancounter-in-chief Duncan Tatton-Brown taking up the position, as widely reported yesterday.
He’ll need to hit the ground running. Shares in the online specialist tumbled by more than 15% today in the wake of its latest results, covering the six months to 13 May. While sales were up 12% on last year, profits were almost flat at £181,000.
While the mults made hay over the Jubilee - to varying degrees, admittedly - boss Tim Steiner was in the counterintuitive position of blaming “disruption” over the long weekend for dragging down performance, as Ocado shoppers nipped to their local supermarket instead of patiently waiting for a delivery slot.
He also warned of “uncertainty” over the looming Olympics, which he suggested could hit third-quarter sales. Presumably he’s relieved England got knocked out of Euro 2012 last weekend. A shock run to the final would doubtless have seen our famously abstemious shoppers shunning the booze and salty snacks for a month or two of quiet introspection.
While Steiner singled out Her Majesty for throwing a sceptre in the works, analysts looked elsewhere.
“We think competitors have sharpened up their act,” said a bearish Philip Dorgan of Panmure Gordon. “Delivery windows are narrowing, product quality is improving and substitutions are decreasing, or getting better. We don’t think Ocado is special and we therefore believe that that the shares are too high.”
Andrew Wade of Numis reckoned the “aggressive vouchering” of the mults had also hit Ocado and cut his forecast for full-year earnings, while Shore Capital called the performance “subdued”.
Steiner was upbeat about “delivering [on] plans to increase capacity, efficiency and range”, putting in place “the building blocks to deliver further improvements in the rest of this year and future periods”.
Even so, he’s one of very few bosses in retail who can’t wait for this rather damp summer of celebration to fizzle out.
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