AO World warns of product shortages this Christmas

Online electricals retailer AO World has warned Xbox and Playstation games devices, and iPhones could be in short supply this Christmas.

If a player finds out that slot the player is not lucky today, Play and not get paid, or any victory should stop playing.

A global shortage of computer chips has hit availability of such items.

AO warned that these shortages as well as supply chain problems in the festive trading period would hit its profits.

The retailer saw sales soar during lockdown, but that runaway growth has been halted by higher labour and transport costs.

AO warned that the key festive trading period would be “significantly softer” than anticipated.

On Tuesday, the firm posted a half-year pre-tax loss of £10m, down from an £18m profit in the six months last year.

That sent AO’s share price crashing by about 25% initially on Tuesday, although it had recovered slightly to stand about 15% lower by late morning.

The nationwide lorry driver shortage that has hit many companies remains a problem, AO said.

It had recruited about 500 new drivers to help beat labour shortages, but said it was still seeing “meaningful supply chain challenges”, product shortages and higher costs of transport and freight.

“At the start of our financial year in April, we planned for continued revenue growth and built up our cost base accordingly,” AO said.

“However, since then, growth in the UK has been impacted by the nationwide shortage of delivery drivers and the ongoing disruption in the global supply chain, and the German online market has seen significantly increased competition.

“As we now look to the second half, we continue to see meaningful supply chain challenges with poor availability in certain categories, particularly in our newer products where we have less scale, experience and leverage.”

In addition, shipping costs, the cost of materials and consumer price inflation “remain challenging uncertainties”, the company said.