AO World revenue surges on demand for electrical goods over Christmas
Online electricals retailer AO World has seen UK sales soar by more than two thirds over its festive quarter as it hailed its best-ever peak trading performance.
The company, which has a major recycling centre in Telford and recently opened a new warehouse in Stafford, posted a 67.2 per cent hike in UK sales over the three months to December 31 to £457.3 million thanks to record trading over Black Friday and in the run-up to Christmas.
It added that the group's German business was profitable throughout its third quarter after seeing revenues jump 77.4 per cent higher – a milestone for the division which has been loss-making since launch in 2014.
But AO World said it faced "significantly higher" costs as it adapted to Covid-19 operational changes, particularly for goods returned from customers, and noted higher cancellations of long-term mobile contracts and warranties as customers react to the pandemic.
AO founder and chief executive John Roberts said: "I believe we've seen 10 years of change in 10 months, and experienced our strongest ever peak trading period.
"We backed ourselves by investing early in warehouses, vehicles, stock and people.
"This not only set us up to satisfy customer demand for electricals for the current crisis but also for the longer term, as the structural shift to online becomes a permanent feature of the market in the UK and Germany.
"One of our biggest achievements this period is to have our German business profitable throughout the third quarter."
