Food delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway.com on Tuesday posted a better-than-expected operating loss of €190m as it continued to invest in its businesses and said it had “reached the peak of absolute losses”.
The loss compares with a profit of €205m a year ago and analyst estimates of a €218m loss. Revenue jumped 52% to €2.6bn reflecting strong order growth during the Covid pandemic. Figures were adjusted to reflect the acquisition of US peer GrubHub in June.
“Improved profitability will be driven by the growth and increased scale of the business, flexibility from the widening price gap, product and technology improvements, operational efficiencies, as well as fee caps which are expected to partly fall away going forward,” the Amsterdam-based company said.
The company repeated its full-year forecast for an EBITDA loss of 1%-1.5% of its gross transaction value, which was €14.1bn for the six months through June 30, compared with €9.69bn a year ago.
Just Eat Takeaway, which competes with Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Delivery Hero around the world, said it intends to sell its 33% stake in iFood of Brazi, but had spurned a €2.3bn offer as inadequate.
The company was formed when Dutch firm Takeaway took over UK rival Just Eat in a £6.2bn deal in early 2020, just before the Covid pandemic forced the lockdown of millions of people and the closure of restaurants.
It then snapped up Grubhub for £5.8bn, giving it access to the US market and creating the largest food delivery service outside China, serving customers in 25 countries.
