Ocado Group (LON:OCDO) reports its first half figures on Wednesday as the online grocer tackles the industry-wide challenge of rising food price inflation.
The company's second quarter is expected to show a similar trend to its first quarter trading update in March when it reported a 13.1% increase in retail sales, unchanged from the previous year. At the time, the group said average order volumes rose 16.7% but the order amount fell 1.6%, reflecting pricing pressures.
Numis expects a 5% rise in first half underlying earnings (EBITDA) to £38.4mln.
The broker also said a key focus is the possible threat Ocado faces from Amazon.com Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AMZN) acquisition of Whole Foods and its recent trials of driverless deliveries.
“For our part, we see the outlook for Ocado UK Retail operation as encouraging, and continue to believe Ocado is developing the most advanced and economic end-to-end technology platform for third party retailers,” said Numis analyst Andrew Wade.