Just Eat expanded its reach into grocery markets through a tie up with One Stop Corner Shops.
Up to 500 items such as bread, milk and snacks will be available to order through Just Eat’s app.
There are 40 One Stop locations in the UK where you can first order groceries. However, Just Eat suggested that it might offer delivery to up 500 shops.
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 saw a 0.7% increase in price to 4046p (or 26p), as investors made some profit 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. The move follows the footsteps of competitors Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and others (up 0.2 percent, or 0.4%, to 213.3p), with the former having started a London grocery delivery service back in September.
Stock Watch – Avita
Avacta, a drug and diagnostic testing company, exploded after the CE marking for its Covid-19 side flow test was granted to the EU and UK.
This mark indicates that the products meet all safety and health requirements before they can be sold to customers.
Avacta’s Affidx test, which uses a nasal swab and provides a result in 20 minutes, will be marketed under the Meduflow brand.
These shares rose by 16.9% or 17.9p from 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 rose 0.6%, or 44.25, to 7341.66, while the FTSE 250 saw an increase of 1.1 percent, or 260.49, to 23.080.79.
The Omicron version of Covid-19 is reported to cause milder symptoms than the Delta variant, which gives some hope that the current wave of infections may not be as severe as initially thought.
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.
After it resolved a competition regulators probe into ground rent fees, Taylor Wimpey saw its stock rise by 2.6%, or 4.35p to 174.1p
It has been agreed that certain terms of leaseholder contracts will be removed from the company, which would have allowed ground rents to double every ten years.
Rio Tinto, the mining giant, went underground. It lost 1 percent, or 58.5p to 4854.4p. After pushing back its date for full-year results one week to February 23, from February 16, Rio Tinto moved it to February 23.
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. Shares rose 0.02 percent, or 1p to 4231p.
Boohoo, an online fashion giant was moved to tears when Liberum’s analysts reduced the target price of their stock from 360p to 200p.
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 declined 1.5% or 1.7p at 115.35p.