Food-ordering platform Just Eat Takeaway.com NV has said that it expects profitability to improve, as it reported a 51% surge in overall orders for the first six months of the year.
Chief executive Jitse Groen said he expected adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to rise following the acquisition of Grubhub
Just Eat, which recently introduced grocery delivery in Germany, acquired the US-based business in a $7.3 billion (€6.17 billion) deal earlier this year.
Profitability Set To Improve
"Adjusted EBITDA losses, mainly caused by U.S. and Canadian fee caps and our investment programme, have now peaked", Groen said in a trading update. "We therefore expect to trend back to profitability going forward while retaining significant growth during the second half of the year."
The surge in orders, which was adjusted to account for the acquisition of Grubhub, followed a 42% jump last year as COVID-19 restrictions boosted demand for food-delivery services.
Orders in Europe increased 61% in the first half of the year, and the company slightly upped its outlook for the growth of these sales to more than 45% over the whole of 2021.
Just Eat Takeaway said it would continue to choose market share improvements over operating profits, even as it expected its margins to improve in the months to come.
Rival Deliveroo said earlier this month that it saw an 88% increase in orders in the second quarter of its financial year, following its listing in London in March of this year. Deliveroo recently inked new deals with Groupe Casino and Waitrose to facilitate grocery deliveries.
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