Ocado has seen a 15.6% increase in gross sales to £442.4m for the 24 weeks ending 18 May 2014 compared with the same period last year.

Pre-tax profits for the period reached £7.5m against a loss of £1.0m last year.

The launch of Morrisons’ online grocery operation, provided by Ocado, in January helped to boost sales.

Ocado is also planning to start work on a third customer fulfilment centre later this year, subject to planning consent.

Chief executive officer, Tim Steiner, said: “The online grocery market continued to outperform the traditional bricks and mortar supermarkets, with the overall rate of growth currently impacted by subdued and cautious consumer spending. At the same time, Ocado outperformed its key online grocery competitors.”

He added: “We expect that our retail business will continue growing broadly in line with, or slightly ahead of, the online grocery market.”