Fast-forward 12 months and AO World, the online white goods retailer, could be proven an Icarus-like over-reacher or vindicated as the victim of a short-sighted market. In the meantime, though, pumping cash into increasing warehouse capacity and improving IT to capture a shift by customers online has made a slowdown in revenue growth sting even more sharply for the former stock market darling.
A shortage in products and delivery drivers, along with rising competition in the fledgling German business, mean that revenue this year is expected to be, at best, flat on last year and potentially 5 per cent lower. On the back of 6 per cent revenue growth in the first six months of the year — behind the double-digit rate expected by analysts
