Just Eat Takeaway orders jump in Covid-19 delivery boom

Just Eat Takeaway's orders jumped 50% in the first quarter as food deliveries boomed during the Covid-19 crisis after an initial drop.

Orders in the three months to the end of March rose to 46.7m from 31.1m a year earlier as orders in Germany more than doubled to 22.2m from 9.8m.

Order volumes fell in mid-March as the coronavirus crisis hit Europe, forcing restaurants to close and the company was hit by cyber attacks affecting hundreds of thousands of orders.

Business then picked up strongly and large markets such as the Netherlands, Germany and Poland have recovered, the company said in a trading update. Takeaway said it expected business to return to normal after the crisis.

Takeaway's Scoober division, which generates 7% of revenue, was worst hit by closures because most of its client restaurants are mainly dine-in businesses. The company said thousands of chains and local restaurants had joined its service in attempts to replace lost dine-in or pickup trade with deliveries.

Jitsge Groen, Takeaway's chief executive, said: "Takeaway.com is one of the few, and privileged, companies that has only modestly been affected by the crisis. The most notable effect on our figures has been, what we now believe to be, a temporary impact on our March orders. Despite enormous shifts in user behaviour and restaurant composition, our business continues to be very strong and resilient.”

Takeaway, based in the Netherlands merged with Just Eat of the UK earlier in 2020 but the businesses are being run separately while the UK's competition regulator conducts an investigation. Takeaway said its board had no information about Just Eat's performance. The Competition and Markets Authority is due to publish its decision by 19 May.