AO wants to double revenue in 5 years

Online electrical retailer AO wants to more than double its turnover in five years’ time. In this time frame, the UK company also aims to be active in five different markets. “Our mission is to be the global destination for electricals”, AO stated during its full year results presentation.

Last year, AO’s revenue went up 62 percent to 1.91 billion euros. This came mainly from product sales that increased as many consumers switched to online shopping when non-essential stores were forced to close their doors.

The market share in Germany doubled to over 3 percent.

According to CFO Mark Higgins, the mix of products in high demand changed through the year. First it was freezers that many customer bought, while later in the year, gaming and consumer electronics and major domestic appliances became very popular.

Most of AO’s revenue comes from the UK

The majority of AO’s revenue was generated in the United Kingdom, where its business grew 59 percent and generated sales of 1.6 billion euros. But the company say strong growth in Germany as well, where its market share doubled to over 3 percent. On the German market, revenues grew 81 percent to 264 million euros.

Migration to ecommerce went well

At AO’s full year results presentation [pdf], founder and CEO John Roberts says the company’s mission is to be the global destination for electricals. “And the migration to online is firmly in our favor.” He also adds that in five years’ time the company aims to have expanded into five territories with a turnover more than double what it is today. “And we’ll be operating in a total addressable market of some 138 billion euros.”

AO makes around 14,000 deliveries a day.

Since the launch of AO in 1999, the online electrical retailer has welcomed over 8 million customers, with 2 million in the last year alone. The company makes around 14,000 deliveries a day across the United Kingdom and Germany and it has almost one million square meters of warehousing.

Expansion to Italy, France and Spain?

In early 2016, AO expanded to the Netherlands, but three years later the company decided to already close its Dutch operation and focus on the UK and Germany instead. Now it seems that AO wants to try and expand again to new markets in the coming years. Roberts: “We’ll give you more information about where and when in November at half year. But in terms of a European roll-out, we believe there’s all to play for in the big markets of Italy, France and Spain.”