VS Series
Ocado v Waitrose
The online-only grocer and the upmarket supermarket that used to supply it. How do their accounts compare?
Waitrose leads on all five measures that matter most: turnover, pre-tax profit, profit margin, growth and net assets. Waitrose is the biggest by turnover at £7,767m, against £3,193m at Ocado. Waitrose keeps more of every £100 it takes, £1.43 as pre-tax profit.
The year ends are close enough to compare like for like.
Accounts compared: Ocado to Mar 2026 · Waitrose to Jan 2026
Who they are
Ocado
Ocado Retail Limited · 03875000Ocado is an online supermarket that delivers groceries, household goods and Marks & Spencer food to people's homes, with no shops of its own.In brief: online-only grocer · home delivery from its own warehouses · sells M&S food · joint venture of Ocado Group and M&SFull profile →Waitrose
Waitrose Limited · 00099405Waitrose is a UK supermarket chain selling food, drink and groceries, with a focus on quality and own-label ranges.In brief: supermarket chain · own shops and online delivery · own-label ranges · employee-ownedFull profile →The Numbers
The leader on each measure is marked. Movements are against each company's own prior year. Pre-tax profit is filed except where marked (est.).
Category winners
The Takeaway
- Waitrose converts the most of its turnover. Of every £100, £1.43 reaches pre-tax profit, against a loss of £1.10 at Ocado.
- Waitrose is the largest on the top line, £7,767m of turnover, 2.4x Ocado's £3,193m.
- Waitrose is growing fastest, turnover +6.9% on its own prior year. Ocado went backwards.
- Waitrose is the biggest employer with 44,900 people; Waitrose pays the most per head, an average staff cost of about £26,000.
- Waitrose has the largest balance sheet, net assets of £718m, while Ocado holds the most cash at £73m.
Who keeps the most of every £100 of sales?
Waitrose keeps the most: £1.43 of every £100 of turnover becomes pre-tax profit. Ocado does worst, losing £1.10.
Every profit figure here is the one the company filed.
The chart splits each company's turnover into £100: what goes on people, on interest and on everything else, and what is left as profit.
Out of every £100 of turnover
Each column is £100 of that company's own turnover, so companies of any size compare on one scale; the figures are pounds out of each £100, not millions. Companies run from the best margin to the worst. Payroll is staff costs, financing is interest paid, other running costs are everything else, and profit is pre-tax profit, filed or estimated as marked in the table. A loss is not an extra cost: it is the part of the costs that runs past the £100 line, marked with a red bracket. Hover over any segment for its figure.
Who is the biggest, and does the comparison hold?
By turnover the order is Waitrose (£7,767m), Ocado (£3,193m).
By headcount, Waitrose leads with 44,900 employees.
The accounting periods all end within 2 months of each other. All are on the same filing basis.
Turnover on the latest filing
Who is growing fastest?
Waitrose grew fastest, turnover +6.9% on its own prior year, ahead of Ocado (-14.6%).
Turnover change on each company's own prior year
Who employs the most, who pays the most, and who brings in the most per head?
Waitrose employs the most, 44,900 people, against 928 at Ocado.
Waitrose has the highest average staff cost, about £26,000 a head.
Waitrose brings in the most turnover per employee, about £173,000. It says as much about the business model as the workforce: a marketplace or a wholesaler needs far fewer people per pound than a restaurant or a gym.
Per-head figures are left out for Ocado (staff costs under 2% of turnover): the staff are probably employed by another company in the group, so dividing by this company's headcount would mislead.
Who owns each one?
Ownership as recorded on the Companies House register of people with significant control, in the bands the register uses.
What does the full ledger show?
| Measure | Ocado | Waitrose |
|---|---|---|
| Registered name | OCADO RETAIL LIMITED | WAITROSE LIMITED |
| Company number | 03875000 | 00099405 |
| Incorporated | 1999 | 1908 |
| Accounts filed | 28 September 2026 | 14 May 2026 |
| Turnover, prior year | £3,737m | £7,267m |
| Pre-tax profit, prior year | -£80m | £138m |
| Staff costs | £63m | £1,151m |
| Payroll share of turnover | 2.0% | 14.8% |
| Employees, prior year | 869 | n/d |
| Dividends paid | n/d | n/d |
| Charges outstanding | 0 | 3 |
A figure the filing does not disclose is shown as n/d; a zero in a filing is treated as not disclosed. Rounding: below £0.1m in thousands, £0.1m to £2m to one decimal place, above that to the nearest million.
Ocado v Waitrose: common questions
Who is the biggest of Ocado or Waitrose?
Waitrose, with turnover of £7,767m in the year to January 2026.
Which makes the most profit?
Waitrose: £111m pre-tax in the year to January 2026.
Which employs the most people?
Waitrose, with 44,900 employees in its latest accounts.
Ocado or Waitrose: which is bigger?
Waitrose, with turnover of £7,767m against £3,193m at Ocado on their latest filings. On margin, Waitrose keeps more of each £100 as pre-tax profit. The full head to head is in the VS Series. Read the VS page →
Where do these figures come from?
Each company's latest accounts filed at Companies House. Each links to its full Spark Intel profile, which names the filing it comes from.
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