You know the animal spirits must be rising when an estate agency and an online grocer announce plans to float in the same week.
At least Winkworth, which we revealed on Monday was planning an autumn flotation, is making money. Ocado, set up by three former Goldman Sachs bankers in 2000, has yet to turn in a profit, despite raising more money than any other internet start-up in Europe.
The field is littered with corpses, including Webvan and Peapod in the US, and Tesco’s Sir Terry Leahy has dismissed Ocado’s business model as unsustainable. But then, he would, wouldn’t he? Tesco does seem to spend a great deal of time watching Ocado and is moving its own online operation closer to Ocado’s warehouse-based model.
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