Ocado (OCDO) has posted an 11.5% retail sales rise in its third quarter, driven by a double-digit rise in customer numbers.

Retail sales in the 13 weeks to 2 September 2018.grew to £348.6m, with average orders per week up 11.4% to 283,000 and average order size stable at £106.26.

Ocado said it was seeing “good performance” from its new customer fulfilment centres at facilities at Andover and Erith, with “very strong” initial growth at Erith

Tim Steiner, Ocado’s CEO, commented: “The new capacity from Andover and Erith, our robotic third and fourth warehouses, is helping meet consumer demand for our services and drive the channel shift which is transforming grocery retailing in the UK. We are proud to have opened our Erith Customer Fulfilment Centre this summer on time and on budget.

”At full capacity, this latest state-of-the-art CFC will be the largest automated warehouse for online grocery in the world. We are delighted to report that last week Erith processed over 20,000 customer orders 14 weeks after opening, a number which took Andover 15 months to achieve. Together, Andover and Erith provide new opportunities for growth in our UK retail business while showcasing the scalability, adaptability and efficiency of our platform.

“Ocado’s unique and proprietary technology, which makes these facilities work, is bringing greater value, quality and convenience to British shoppers while at the same time helping our partners redefine the shopping experience for their own customers. We are on track to deliver a significant number of new CFCs for our Solutions partners in the coming years and as such are fulfilling our goal of changing the way the world shops.”

Ocado shares ended the day up 0.8% to 919.8p, though the shares peaked at 960.4p before falling away late in the afternoon.

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