Waitrose to Prove an Olympic Winner?

By Laura Elliott.

Upmarket retailer Waitrose has been awarded a gold medal by Retail Week as the retailer most likely to benefit from the Olympic Games. By contrast, the chain’s one-time partner, Ocado, seems to be struggling.

Yesterday, Tim Steiner, chief executive for the group, bemoaned both the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee following Ocado’s half-year results which revealed a £90 million loss from the chain’s market value.

Despite this, the company did manage to make a small profit, and the result was largely in line with analysists’ predictions. However, investors in the company may be worried about the group’s potential for sales growth. Although one-off events such as the Olympics cause some form of disruption to trading, it has been suggested that Ocado’s problems are more structural – and long-term.

Waitrose is now viewed by the group as a threat, due to the fact Ocado still sells a lot of its range. Whether this will impact badly on Ocado in the future, only time will tell.

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Posted by admin on Jun 27 2012. Filed under Europe, Latest News, Retail News, Supermarkets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry