Shares of Bolton-based online electrical retailer AO World plc rose about 30% on Tuesday after it issued a trading update and increased its profit guidance for the year to March 2023.

“Consistent with the themes set out in the trading statement issued on 10 January, we continue to see traction from the initiatives taken by the business to reduce costs and improve margins,” said AO World.

“Margin improvement initiatives coupled with a continued resilient underlying customer base has driven higher retail gross margins than previously expected and we anticipate that this will continue for the remaining five weeks of the financial year.

“The steps we have taken to simplify the business and become more efficient have outperformed expectations and been delivered quicker than expected.

“Mobile RPI price increases have also been slightly higher than our prudent forecast.

“Accordingly, the board now expects Adjusted EBITDA  to be in a range of £37.5m to £45m for the full year, an increase to the previous guidance that we gave in January 2023.

“AO expects to publish a full year post close trading statement on 14 April 2023.”