Bolton online retailer hit by £16m loss
Bolton based online retailer AO World saw its losses slump to more than £16m last year.
Despite the rise in losses the company said revenue continued to grow in both the UK and Europe with total revenue for the period increasing by 13.6% to £796.8m.
UK growth continued to be resilient against a backdrop of a weaker UK electricals
AO website sales for the UK were up 8.7% to £606.6m. Total UK revenue was up 8.1% to £680.8m.
Europe revenue for the period increased by 54.8% on a constant currency basis to €131.2m despite minimal traditional marketing activity.
The group operating loss of £16.2m reflected further trading losses incurred in Europe with operating profit for the UK down by 25.4% to £11.6m.
Steve Caunce, AO chief executive , said: “FY18 has been another year of good progress for AO.
“Over the year we have continued to evolve our purpose to ensure it is suitable for the AO of today: to have the happiest customers by relentlessly striving for a better way.
“Our consistently high NPS scores and our amazing Trustpilot achievement in the UK proves we are firmly on track.”
He added: “We have continued to successfully launch new categories across our territories, and our UK recycling facility became fully operational, building upon our vertically integrated infrastructure.
“In the UK we have maintained market share in our core business in a very competitive market and have performed well in the second half of the year with limited marketing expenditure demonstrating the asset of our customer base as it repeats and recommends.
“Our European operations continue to build scale and confidence as we remain on track to achieve our FY21 profitable run-rate objective.”
He concluded: “I want to thank all our AOers for their hard work and dedication this year. There has been fantastic collaboration across our business as we have come together to define what we really stand for.
“The new financial year has started well in both the UK and Europe, with UK revenue growth returning to double-digit levels against prior year. Whilst we remain cautious on outlook given economic and competitive pressures on the UK electricals market we are confident of achieving our stated goals of future growth in the years ahead.”
