Shares of Bolton-based online electrical retailer AO World rose about 6% on Tuesday after it said in a trading update it “has grown market share and seen increased demand and sales across all categories since the lockdown measures came into force.”
AO said it expects its headline financial results for revenue and adjusted EBITDA to fall within the range of analysts’ expectations.
It said the current range of analysts’ expectations is between £1.02 billion and £1.09 billion for revenue and for adjusted EBITDA of between £5 million and £11.6 million.
“The lockdown measures implemented by Governments in both the UK and Germany created a unique set of circumstances with customers forced to stay at home and relying on their electrical and electronic products like never before,” said the Bolton firm.
“Shopping online has become an unavoidable way of life during lockdown and we are proud of the part that AO has been able to play supporting our customers through this unprecedented time.
“Historically, a large proportion of sales of electricals have been made through bricks and mortar stores.
“With the implementation of lockdown measures, overnight 100% of the market moved online.
“As we move towards a new normal, we would expect the online market in electricals to maintain a higher share than prior to Covid-19.
“Despite a decline in the overall market of the categories in which we operate, AO has grown market share and seen increased demand and sales across all categories since the lockdown measures came into force.
“We will update more fully on trading at the full year results on 14 July 2020 by which time we expect to have a clearer view on outlook.”
AO founder and CEO John Roberts said: “I want to thank the amazing team of AOers for their dedication, sacrifice and professionalism through the very recent period in particular but also throughout the last 12 months.
“They have delivered in spades against the key priorities we set and we entered our new financial year in good shape.
“Our team in Germany has embraced our One AO approach and is benefiting on all key metrics as a result.
“We are more certain than ever of the potential of that business and the platform it provides for growth.
“For the last 20 years I believe we have been a driving force of change, making things better, easier and cheaper than ever before for customers with outstanding levels of service.
“Never before has that service been more necessary or relevant and so I am very proud of the record customer satisfaction scores we are achieving through this period.”