Electrical appliance retailer AO increases revenues by 62 per cent

A UK electrical appliances retailer has announced that its revenues have increased by more than 60 per cent across the last year.

AO World, which sells appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines and televisions, reported that group revenues in the year to the end of March rose by 62 per cent, jumping from approximately £1.02bn to £1.66bn.

The company said that its UK website increased year-on-year revenue by 88 per cent in Q4, while its German website increased full year revenue by 77 per cent.

Throughout the period, AO estimates that it added more than 2 million new customers and ended the year with £66.5m cash, up from 2020’s £6.9m.

John Roberts, AO’s founder and chief executive, commented: “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.

“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.”