Ocado has gained a 7% share of the organic grocery market, boosted by a tripling in Daylesford sales after the launch of its virtual farm shop on the website in September.

The online grocer significantly overtrades in organic. Its 7% share of UK organic sales is far ahead of its 0.45% share of overall grocery.

More than three quarters of Ocado baskets sold in 2011 contained at least one organic product. And its organic sales increased by 5.5% in the year to the end of November, below the 16% increase in total sales, but bucking the tide in the overall organic market, with UK sales falling 5.8% to £874m [Kantar Worldpanel 52 w/e 15 May 2011].

Ocado currently stocks 1,356 organic products, of which 360 are from Waitrose. Ocado said Waitrose, which has a 22% share of the organic market, continued to make a “significant contribution” to its organic range. However, it highlighted the more specific successes of other organic brands. For example, Laverstoke and Daylesford drove an 18.8% annual increase in organic fresh meat sales last year [52 w/e November 2011]. And Daylesford’s weekly sales have tripled since the farm shop’s offering on the Ocado site doubled to 135 products at the beginning of September.

Ocado CEO Tim Steiner pledged to invest further in organic in 2012. Last week, Steiner also said Ocado would continue to invest in price and marketing to convince consumers it is not “a posh shop for posh people”.

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