Anticipating Brexit disruption, AO World doubles warehouse capacity -CEO

AO founder and CEO John Roberts said the main challenge of Brexit was supply chains rather than market demand. "We've about doubled our warehouse capacity and we've placed orders to, hopefully, fill that capacity to insulate customers from that disruption," he told Reuters.

British online electricals retailer AO World has doubled its warehouse capacity to deal with anticipated supply chain disruption at the end of Britain's Brexit transition period with the European Union on Dec. 31, its boss said on Tuesday. AO founder and CEO John Roberts said the main challenge of Brexit was supply chains rather than market demand.

"We've about doubled our warehouse capacity and we've placed orders to, hopefully, fill that capacity to insulate customers from that disruption," he told Reuters. "But we can't give any guarantees on that and we have definitely (already) seen supply chain disruption out of manufacturers, through things like ports like Felixstowe and so on."

Roberts also forecast a record Black Friday (Nov. 27) performance from AO and for the electricals market as a whole.