Just Eat sees orders rise 25% to 266 million in third quarter

Online food ordering and delivery service Just Eat Takeaway. com said on Wednesday orders increased by 25 per cent to 266 million in the third quarter, with growth weakest in the United States. The total number was slightly worse than expected by analysts at ING bank, who had forecast orders to rise 35 per cent from a year earlier to 287 million.

Growth in Britain, the company’s largest market was 51 per cent, but weakest in the US, its second-largest, at just 3 per cent. “With most of the world returning to pre-pandemic life, our growth in the third quarter of 2021 has remained strong.

Just Eat Takeaway.com is well-positioned for autumn and winter, our traditional growth season," chief executive Officer Jitse Groen said in a statement. Takeaway completed its $7.3 billion acquisition of US peer GrubHub in June, and GrubHub chief executive Matt Maloney said last week he intends to leave in December. Addressing the US performance, Just Eat Takeaway said it has started "an improvement programme re-focusing the company on GrubHub's strongholds."

In August, GrubHub suffered a setback when New York City, its largest US market, capped the commissions it and rival companies can charge restaurants to use their platforms at 15 per cent of food orders for delivery.

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Competes

Takeaway competes with Uber Eats, and Door Dash, in the US, and Deliveroo and Delivery Hero in Europe, among others. The company on Wednesday repeated its full-year forecast for an Ebitda loss of 1 per cent-1.5 per cent on a gross transaction value of €28 billion for 2021, or a loss of €280-€380 million.

In August, Takeaway reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of €190 million for the first half, but said it expected that number to improve in the second half. Gross transaction value, a common measure for e-commerce companies, increased by €6.8 billion or 21 per cent , bringing the 9-month total to €20.9 billion. Takeaway shares closed at €63.29 on Tuesday, down 30 per cent in the year to date. - Reuters