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Online retailer AO World has revealed its FY21 group revenues increased 62% to £1.66bn, thanks in part to a strong Q4 performance from its UK website.
It comes as AO.com reported an 88% increase in year-on-year revenues in Q4 as the group welcomed an additional 2 million customers during the financial year.
In addition, its performance was also boosted by a 77% increase in revenues at its German arm as well as changes to its operating model and associated investments which “significantly enhanced” its operating capacity.
As a result of these achievements, AO said that group Adjusted EBITDA, despite Covid-related costs, is expected to be in the range £63m – £72m, up from £19.6m the previous year.
The group also generated £60m of cash over the year, with cash of £66.5m (2020: £6.9m) at the year end.
John Roberts, AO founder and chief executive said: “I am delighted to report a year of outstanding financial, operational and strategic progress. The last 12 months have been like no other and we have been very proud to rise to the challenges for our customers – keeping their lives powering on with essential electrical and technology products.
“Serving customers in The AO Way and treating every customer like our own gran, irrespective of cost, has enabled us to impress millions of customers with a better way to
shop electricals. We were brave and bold in our capacity and infrastructure investments early in the year and now look forward to building on that scale advantage.”
He added: “I believe that these market dynamics will stick and, whilst there is inevitable uncertainty, the direction of travel is firmly with AO and the business model we have spent more than 20 years building. I expect that we will continue to be a double-digit growth business in the year ahead, even now as we lap the tough comparatives from last year with physical stores open.
“I look forward to providing more detail at our full year results in June. “I would like to thank all AOers for living our values through this year and our trading partners who have been with us shoulder to shoulder as we have shown millions of customers a better way to shop electricals.”
