MARKET REPORT: Just Eat moves into grocery delivery with One Stop deal

Food delivery firm Just Eat continued its expansion into the grocery market through a tie-up with corner shop chain One Stop.

Up to 500 items such as bread, milk and snacks will be available to order through Just Eat’s app.

Around 40 One Stop stores in the UK will initially be available to order groceries from, although Just Eat said it could offer delivery for 500 stores.

Appy shopper: Just Eat will soon offer up to 500 items including basics such as bread, milk, toiletries and snacks through its app after its tie-up with corner shop chain One Stop

‘One Stop is a much-loved British convenience store at the heart of many local communities, making it a perfect partner,’ said Andrew Kenny, managing director of Just Eat’s UK business.

Just Eat rose just 0.7 per cent, or 26p, at 4046p as investors took some profits before Christmas. The deal follows Just Eat’s entry into a fast-growing market last week when it unveiled a partnership with supermarket giant Asda.

From January, customers on Just Eat’s app will be able to order a range of Asda products. It is following on the heels of rivals Uber Eats and Deliveroo (up 0.2 per cent, or 0.4p, to 213.3p), the latter having launched a grocery delivery service in London in September.

Stock Watch – Avacta

Drug and diagnostic test maker Avacta shot up after its Covid-19 lateral flow test received a CE mark for use as a self-test for people in the UK and the EU.

The mark signifies that products have met the safety, health and environmental requirements to be sold to consumers. 

Avacta’s Affidx test, which uses a nasal swab and provides a result in 20 minutes, will be marketed under the Meduflow brand.

The shares surged 16.9 per cent, or 17.9p, to 123.8p.   

Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor, said Just Eat and other food delivery firms were ‘all fighting for a slice of the increasingly competitive UK grocery market’ and that the race was ‘getting even tougher’ as new competitors emerged.

The FTSE 100 inched up 0.6 per cent, or 44.25 points, to 7341.66 while the FTSE 250 climbed 1.1 per cent, or 260.49 points, to 23.080.79.

Reports that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 causes milder symptoms than its Delta counterpart provided some optimism that the latest wave of infections could be less bad than initially feared.

However, the market mood was soured slightly by worse than expected UK growth in the third quarter, which saw the economy expand by 1.1 per cent rather than initial reports of 1.3 per cent as supply chain issues began to bite.

The latest pandemic panic also seems to have snuffed out any chance of a late ‘Santa Rally’, with the blue-chip index heading for a rise of less than 1pc in the final week before Christmas.

Mid-cap life science investor Syncona surged 5.5 per cent, or 11p, to 211p after it struck a deal to sell its Gyroscope Therapeutics business to Swiss pharma giant Novartis for £1.1billion.

Syncona, which co-founded Gyroscope in 2016, is expecting to rake in up to £589million from the deal, more than five times the cost of its original investment.

Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey rose 2.6 per cent, or 4.35p, to 174.1p after it settled a probe by competition regulators into ground rent fees. 

The firm has agreed to remove terms from some of its leaseholder contracts that would have doubled ground rents every 10 years.

Mining giant Rio Tinto headed underground, shedding 1 per cent, or 58.5p, to 4854.4p after pushing back the date for its full-year results by one week, to February 23 from February 16.

Budget airline Wizz Air announced the purchase of a ‘substantial portfolio’ of 15 aircraft slots at Gatwick Airport from Norwegian Air Shuttle, and will base four additional aircraft there from next spring. The shares crept up 0.02 per cent, or 1p, to 4231p.

And online fashion giant Boohoo was in tears after a bleak note from analysts at broker Liberum, who cut their target price for the stock to 200p from 360p.

Liberum said a recent profit warning was ‘not just a result of the global supply chain logjam but also over-optimism baked into the guidance’, adding that they believed higher supply costs and weaker delivery ‘will persist for the next 12-18 months’. Boohoo fell 1.5 per cent, or 1.7p, to 115.35p.

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk