AO World closes Netherlands arm amid losses of £6.2m
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AO World has reported an underlying loss of £6.2m compared to £5.4m last year, resulting in the business to pull out of The Netherlands, less than four years after its launch.
The online electricals retailer’s half year report for the period ending 30 September stated a statutory pre-tax loss of £5.9m, up from the £10.9m loss it posted in 2018.
Like-for-like sales increased by 4.5% resulting in underlying interim earnings rising from £6.9m to £7.8m.
Although the results indicated an increase of Adjusted EBITA losses to £13.6m (€15.9m) from £11.8m (€13.8m) last year, The Netherlands operation made an adjusted EBITDA loss of £2.4m in the six months to 30 September 2019.
As a result, the online retailer stated that it planned to close its operations in the country by early next year and focus efforts on turning around its business in Germany following the European division.
AO founder and chief executive officer, John Roberts, said: “There are encouraging green shoots of profitable growth across our UK business, including within our core MDA offer and we will continue to invest to drive this further.
“This will enable us to concentrate on the transformation of our German business, where we have increased confidence in, and visibility of, the three core drivers of the business model that will put us on the path to profitability.”
