Oh deary, this delivery service was spun out of Waitrose, DYOR and is now spewing out lots of green messages all over, for those shoppers that want home-delivery. Yet, oddly it seems in London next year Waitrose will launch its own delivery -( seems a bit "stupid" - eh?)
Meanwhile, the sp starts at 1.60 and slips a tad ( yet to make a Profit, but it's closer than those Dot-Com lunatic days..)....about 1.64 close today......yet, their Customers were offered a bung of shares at the Float-price....eh? (Well, it helps it get-away, I suppose.).

Chairman Michael Grade is said to be "very happy" with the discounted Float, but he gets shares to the value of a something-Bonus. However, some commentaters suggest he's not the right man for this business (or a.....).

Ocado - Grief, it's an Ugly name. They were so close to Car-Go, or Green-Del (er, perhaps?). It was also associated with John Lewis Group, but DYOR.

The BAD News is that today an RNS shows the level of Director support (did he "miss out" - or did his Broker missunderstand the word Goodbye...?
Director buys 3k's worth.....Ouch. That must upset anyone like me that thinks any Dir purchase of 50k+ is Goood. . . . . and anything under 10k is really Baaad.


Good Luck, this is an established business...


EDIT -(22Oct10)- 147p
EDIT (29Nov2017)- sp 362p= up 17% - maybe expecting a bid/contract

i was a bit late, but shorted these today around today's closing price ...... another indian rope trick

That's a clever trick - what is today's closing price?

228 or thereabouts ...... actually shorted at 228.7

easy dough right now imp

nice little earner here today - hope some others grabbed some on the bounce

hmmmmmmm - i tink i may have a little tickle again in here monday! the jl sell off managed by goldman was to other iis @ 165p!! more easy cash monday depending on sp obviously
reason for sell nowt to do with ocdo but pension fund strategy to limit % shares in anyone co. and was expected anyhow hence the bounce and more monday no doubt lol!

Retail having a bad time.

A record high of nearly one in three consumers say they have no spare cash, according to the retailers representative the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

According to its survey, which was conducted with the information group Neilsen, 65% of consumers have switched to cheaper grocery brands to save on household expenditure. Higher utility bills and fuel prices are squeezing consumers, the BRC says.

BRC chief executive Stephen Robertson claimed that competition within the grocery sector is helping to take the edge off price inflation, with a larger number of promotions and discounts on offer.

Despite increased penny-pinching and the higher number of consumers with no spare cash, the BRC reported a five point rise in its consumer confidence index.

The extra bank holiday and warm spring provided a little light relief for shoppers and perhaps diverted thoughts away from the incessant squeeze on incomes, but sentiment is no higher than it was two years ago when the UK was in the grip of recession, said Chris Morley, Neilsens managing director for the UK and Ireland, said.

Separately, Robertson said that recent riots are likely to be the final straw for many shops that had been struggling with tough trading conditions.

Goldman Sachs downgrades Ocado forecasts amid City concern.


Online retailer Ocado has been dealt its latest blow from the City after Goldman Sachs, its house broker, sharply downgraded its forecasts for the group.

Goldman, which helped lead Ocado's flotation in July last year, downgraded its revenue and profit forecasts and reduced its six-month share price target for the retailer from 297p to 225p.

Ocado's float was priced at 180p. The downgrade comes just weeks before Ocado is due to post its latest trading figures and risks further souring the company's relationship with City investors and analysts.

Tim Steiner, Ocado's chief executive, told The Daily Telegraph in June that the retailer was experiencing "growing pains" and that the company "would have liked to have grown a bit faster than this", leading to warnings of subsequent analyst downgrades.

Forecasts for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) were also revised lower, down 7pc this year and by 15pc in 2012.

Ocado moved into the black for the first time, with a 174,000 pretax profit in the quarter to May 15, but said that the pace of growth year-on-year had slowed due to capacity constraints.

"The capacity constraints are there but we'll get through them," Mr Steiner said, adding that plans for a second distribution centre remained on track, with completion due by the end of 2012.

Goldman's revision comes a month after Panmure Gordon analyst Philip Dorgan found that Ocado's brokers had sharply reduced their estimates for the retailer since its flotation.

Mr Dorgan said sales estimates for the online retailer had been downgraded by 30pc, Ebitda forecasts by 45pc and estimates for pre-tax profits by an eye-watering 62pc. He described the scale of the downgrades as "simply astonishing" and said he saw "considerable future downside to forecasts".

Serious meltdown... 50p soon.

SP was boosted by statement that Sales were up over Christmas, due to better weather . . . eh?
I thought they were a "delivery" company - so what's this "Sales" and why do people need more stuff when the weather is good...? No, I don't follow, but a 30% rise is good, until you realise it's MM being silly . . . watch it tumble.

hlyeo98 could be right (50p), if this goes on much longer. . . glad I stayed away.

Tuesday also brings us important half-time results from Ocado , the online groceries business that started out delivering for Waitrose supermarket. Following a brief rise after its flotation in mid 2010, Ocado shares slumped as investors worked out that its economics were questionable and significant further funding would be needed to get its revenues up high enough.

We still need to see how the firm's warehouse expansion is to be paid for, and how long it will be before profit levels can justify the current share price. I reckon it might be some time yet.

..Ocado shares fall on Olympic worries

......
Shares in Ocado, the online grocery business, fell heavily after it admitted that it had lost out during the Jubilee weekend and could be hit by disruption caused by the Olympics.

In sharp contrast to the major supermarket chains, which reported a boost in sales thanks to the Jubilee celebrations, Ocado said it has missed out because it could not send out extra vans to supply customers.

The company’s comments were made as it reported a modest half-year profit and a further loosening of ties with its main supplier Waitrose.

Tim Steiner, the chief executive, said extra holidays were difficult to respond to: “Grocery chains hire a bunch of temporary staff and allow an unpleasant atmosphere in store as it gets crowded.”

He said that sales during the final quarter of the year had been hit by 1pc to 2pc, roughly the equivalent to about £1.5m to £3m.

He said could not predict how the Olympics would affect business. “None of us know if it is going to increase demand, or whether it will increase the costs of delivery.”

These comments, along with a warning that the consumer economy remained tough encouraging customers to buy fewer items on each shop caused the shares to fall 20.1 to 88p.

Analysts said they were concerned at how competitive the market was becoming, with Asda (NYSE: WMT - news) , Sainsbury’s and Tesco (LSE: TSCO.L - news) all offering a greater amount of food on promotion.

Mr Steiner insisted that Ocado was not giving away a substantially more vouchers to attract new customers 2.6pc of its sales, up from 2.4pc the year before.

The company has pushed its own-brand line of food, and a growing range of non-food, further lessening its reliance on Waitrose. Eight in ten customers now put an Ocado-branded item in their basket. Fewer than 40pc of goods it sells now come from Waitrose. The deal Waitrose has to supply Ocado comes to an end in 2020.

it revealed pre-tax profits rose to £181,000 in the 24 weeks to May 13 from £174,000 in the same period last year on turnover up 12pc to £332m.

In December shares in Ocado fell to an all-time low after the troubled retailer warned that continued problems at its Hatfield distribution centre would mean yet another year of pre-tax losses.

The highest number of orders delivered in a week exceeded 138,000 during the period.

Joseph Robinson, senior consultant at research agency Conlumino, said: "Ocado seems to have long left behind the issues that have besieged its Hatfield site, and so impinged its 2011 numbers, with its update representing a pleasing performance.

"However, significant question marks remains over the long-term potential for the Ocado model to achieve profitability. Moreover, in the shorter-term, the retailer will encounter an intensifying competitive environment, as its rivals continue to pour investment into pricing and promotions to drive market share."

Meanwhile, Ocado has revealed that former B&Q chief financial officer Duncan Tatton-Brown will join the company in the same role

Easy short money here, going sub 60p, nay bother. Aye.

Ocado's shares are continuing their slide following its disappointing first half update in June, with joint broker Goldman Sachs adding to the misery by cutting its recommendation from buy to neutral.

Many in the industry believe a standalone online operation is at a disadvantage without a physical store to help defray costs.

Goldman has issued a negative note, reducing its six month price target from 140p to 110p. The bank's analyst Karen Hooi said:

We downgrade Ocado and revise our estimates and price target following the first half . Since upgrading Ocado to buy on 1 March 2011, the shares are down 60.2% versus our Europe Small & Mid Cap universe. We believe the underperformance is due to continued concerns on Ocado's capacity expansion capability and the potential impact from rising competition on its revenue growth.

This is bad news for finance director Duncan Tatton-Brown, who bought 50,000 shares at 98.91p each. His wife Kate bought the same amount at 99.57p. At the moment they are sitting on a loss of more than £24,500 between them.

Next Thursday we'll have an interim statement from online grocer Ocado , covering the 12 weeks to 5 August. It's had a rocky ride since flotation in 2010. Although the shares did briefly breach 250p, they're currently trading for less than half their 180p flotation price, at 74p.

There are several reasons for bearishness, but the biggest is fears over the firm's ability to get its capacity high enough to achieve any kind of meaningful profit without needing fresh capital. Still, the coming year could be the turnaround point from loss into profit, so this looks like being an important update.

You would think that Olympic fever would have been good for online retailers. Who wanted to tear themselves away from the telly to shop? Yet for Ocado, the web grocer, this doesn’t appear to have been the case. Investors will find out on Thursday, when the company unveils third-quarter earnings. Barclays has pencilled in a slowdown in sales growth, from 13% to 11%. The Olympic effect, however, is a one-off. More pressing concerns remain. Can Ocado keep its lenders at bay while it struggles to establish a steadily profitable business? Through the first six months of the year, it eked out a pre-tax profit of £200,000. As it works out the kinks of its first big warehouse, and puts the finishing touches to its second, things should improve. Meanwhile, the company is getting dangerously close to breaching the terms of a £100m loan. Ocado is nearing the end of its big investment programme, and sales are on the rise, but if even if all goes perfectly, it is cutting it fine. Barclays said: “Our forecasts do not imply a breach of covenants, but nor do we expect much headroom. Ocado’s lenders may cut some slack to the company given the clear tipping point in view.” Fingers crossed, writes The Sunday Times´ Danny Fortson.

Ocado also crept 0.45 lower to 73.6p ahead of the release of a trading update on Thursday. Pessimistic Panmure Gordon analyst Philip Dorgan reiterated his view that the group’s days as a public company are “limited” and cautioned investors “we don’t think that the equity is worth very much”.

The finance director and his wife bought OCDO at 99p a month ago. Looks like he has no clue how his company's doing...


Online grocery store Ocado Group (OCDO) saw sales growth in its third quarter, ended 5th August, slow to 9.9%, bringing total growth for the first three quarters of the year to 11.3%. The company blamed the decline on disruptions caused by the Queen's Jubilee and Olympics, although it noted that it was able to preserve margins by not resorting to short-term vouchering activity. The firm hopes to see increased sales growth in the final quarter, but does not expect consumer volatility to end any time soon. The shares sank by 2.8p to 64.4p.