It has been reported that online supermarket Ocado’s group sales have risen 15.4% to £314 million despite a “very competitive” market in the 12 weeks to 7th August.

Figures show that retail sales increased 13.6% to £286.4 million, with average orders per week rising 18.9% to 226,000, marking this the best performance in over five years, although average order size was slightly down 3.4% to £107.94.

Ocado’s chief executive, Tim Steiner, said: "Ocado has shown, once again, strong, steady growth as more customers across the country entrust us with their regular grocery shop.

"As the market remains very competitive, we are seeing sustained and continuing margin pressure and there is nothing to suggest that this will change in the short term.

"We are confident that our commitment to further improving the customer experience through constant innovation, supported by our world-class proprietary technology, will allow us to continue to grow ahead of the online grocery market, and substantially ahead of the market overall."