Next Thursday, 19 September, brings an update for Ocado Retail, the UK online grocery joint venture between Ocado Group PLC (LSE:OCDO) and Marks and Spencer Group PLC (LSE:MKS).
It comes towards the end of what has been an up and down year for the JV, which started with a dispute between the two companies over payments, where Ocado said in February that it may need to sue after M&S said the JV failed to meet performance targets.
Over the subsequent months, it has been a rare area of consistent positivity for Ocado, showing solid growth in monthly UK grocery data.
Despite the earlier legal scuffles, CEO Tim Steiner said recently that Ocado remained keen to retain its stake.
Thursday's trading statement will provide an update on third-quarter results for Ocado Retail and likely confirmation or tweaks to full-year guidance for the JV.
For Ocado Group, which provides the robots and software for the JV, it has been an even more volatile year, despite starting 2024 by reporting a rare annual profit.
However, in late June the shares fell below £3 for the first time since 2017 and it dropped out of the FTSE 100 after a second international supermarket customer pressed pause on a new robotic warehouse, leading an analyst who called himself the "last bull standing" to give up and downgrade to the equivalent of a 'sell' rating.
But there has been more positive news in July's half-year trading update, when Ocado Group reported smaller losses and raised its earnings and cash flow guidance for the full year, with its Technology Solutions arm later that month upselling US grocer Kroger to its new robot-arm technology, Japan's Aeon planning a third 'customer fulfilment centre', two for Canada's Coles and another for Spain's Alcampo, to bring the total of live CFCs to 25 across the globe.
Investor confidence in Ocado seems to have been rocked, with the company one of the most shorted stocks in the FTSE 350 and the shares down 60% over the past 12 months, while those in M&S are up over 57%.