Food delivery company Just Eat Takeaway.com is in talks with potential buyers over a possible sale of its U.S. arm Grubhub, chief executive Jitse Groen has said.
Groen was speaking on a call after the company posted a first quarter trading update, in which the company said it would consider a sale, rather than a partnership of Grubhub, which it bought for $7.3 billion (€6.69 billion) last year.
Decline In Orders
Europe's largest meal delivery company scaled back its expectations for growth in 2022, as it reported a 1% decline in orders in the first three months of the year.
In the first quarter of 2022, Just Eat Takeaway.com processed 264 million orders, roughly flat compared with the same period in 2021.
The company said it now expected 'mid-single digit growth' for its Gross Transaction Value (GTV) this year, instead of the "mid teens" predicted last month.
GTV measures the total value of food ordered and delivered.
Normalised Behaviour
The group said that a pandemic-era surge in food ordering was starting to normalise, saying in a statement, 'During the pandemic, the company benefitted from a rapidly increasing consumer base in a short period of time, adding more than 20 million active consumers since April 2020.
'As a result, the company temporarily experiences a corresponding higher-than-normal absolute churn level in the first half of 2022, despite a lower relative churn level of this new consumer group versus pre-pandemic cohorts.'
Looking ahead, the group said that it has made 'significant progress' in terms of its grocery delivery partnerships, most recently announcing tie-ups with Central England Co-op in the UK, Casino in France, and Albert Heijn and Spar in the Netherlands.
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