‘Step change year’ for AO as revenues hit £1.6bn

AO.com founder John Roberts

Demand for large fridges, chest freezers and other home appliances saw AO revenues top £1.6bn.

With consumers continuing to shift to online shopping during the pandemic, the Bolton-headquartered white goods retailer saw a 62 per cent hike in revenues for the year to 31 March 2021, up from £1.02bn in 2020.

During the period the group reported a substantial increase in operating profit to £30m from a £4m loss in the previous year.

In the UK, major domestic appliances grew 61 per cent while small domestic appliances grew 103 per cent, other home entertainment categories all grew strongly, including AV, consumer electronics and gaming.

More than 2m new customers shopped with AO and more than 1,200 new roles created across the business.

In Germany, a refocused team ‘responded brilliantly’ to the same challenges as in the UK, increasing sales by 81 per cent and improving its Gross Margin from a negative 2 per cent in 2019 to a positive 9 per cent this year.

AO’s founder and CEO John Roberts, said the financial results reflect a “step change year for AO.”

“Delivering brilliantly for customers is at the heart of our mission to become the global destination for electricals,” he said.

“We firmly believe that once people experience a better way to buy electricals, they are unlikely to return to old ways of shopping.

“Our vertically integrated business model offers substantial operational leverage which means all incremental growth feeds our flywheel, generating cash to invest back into our business for customers.

“Coming out of the pandemic, the direction of travel is firmly with AO, and our proven ability to build scale and drive growth gives us confidence to look towards further European expansion over the next five years.  We’ll continue to make choices that create long-term value for our share owners, as well as make our mums proud.”

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