For Release: 7am 30 September 2014
AO World plc
Auf geht's! Launch of ao.de in Germany
AO World plc (the "Company"), a leader in online retailing of electrical appliances in the UK, announces the first step in its European expansion, with the launch of ao.de; the German website of ao.com which will trade through a newly created subsidiary, AO Deutschland Limited.
ao.de
We are delighted to announce that our AO.de website - which was promised at the time of IPO to be live before the end of our financial year (31 March 15) - is expected to be live tomorrow, 6 months ahead of schedule.
The site will initially be live for pre-orders with deliveries commencing on the 14th October.
The AO.de proposition will focus only on major domestic appliances initially, but otherwise will largely mirror that of the UK operation, providing customers with market leading availability, price and speed of delivery for a significant range of products supported by major brands.
From the first day of delivery AO.de will offer nationwide next day delivery services and additional services including installation and recycling. We believe this will redefine how major domestic appliances are sold in Germany, as we have achieved in the UK.
To achieve this structural advantage we have invested in end to end resource including head office, warehouse and outbase infrastructure and our own last mile delivery capability to completely own the customer experience as we do in the UK. By replicating our UK model and leveraging the investment made in our established UK systems and processes, this infrastructure has been installed within budget and 6 months early.
Current Trading
Our financial half year ends today and we are pleased to confirm our continued progress to the plan set out at IPO, even with the backdrop of such a major project in Germany. Whilst the early launch in Germany has clearly brought forward all associated costs into the current financial year, the UK business continues to perform well with overall UK revenue growth and EBITDA on track to meet our full year expectations. We continue to drive increased market share through our differentiated service proposition and look forward to announcing our interim results for the first 6 months to 30th September 2014 on 25th November 2014.
Commenting on the launch of AO.de John Roberts, Founder and CEO said:
"I am extremely proud of our team at AO and the scale of what they have achieved in our first step in our international strategy. Over the history of our business we have invested in people we believe can make things happen and then given them the confidence to try, learn and grow. The launch of AO.de is testament to their ability to execute our promises and replicate our proven business model overseas.
Of course we have work to do and we will relish the lessons that will no doubt be forthcoming. We are as passionate about building the AO brand in Germany as we are in the UK and can't wait to start bringing German consumers a better way to buy the category, as we have for UK consumers. Germany is our stepping stone to realising our ambition to become the leading online retailer in our categories in our target markets.
I would like to extend my personal thanks to everyone that contributed to the ability to bring this live so quickly for consumers because this has been a huge team effort across all our trading partners and the AO team.
AO Auf geht's!"
Analyst/Investor conference call:
AO World plc will be hosting a conference call for analysts and investors at 8:30am (UK Time) today. Please call Alys Twinley at Instinctif Partners for dial-in details on 0207 457 2077 or email [email protected].
A replay of this conference call will be available later today.
For further information, please contact
AO World plc |
+44(0)1204 672400 |
John Roberts Steve Caunce |
Instinctif Partners |
Matthew Smallwood Justine Warren Guy Scarborough |
+44(0)20 7457 2020 |
