Just Eat strikes grocery deal with Tesco's One Stop chain

Just Eat Takeaway strengthened its position in the UK groceries-on-demand space on Wednesday, striking a deal with the Tesco-owned convenience brand One Stop.

The London-listed food delivery platform was launching the partnership at around 40 shops across the UK, City AM reported, with a list of about 500 grocery essentials set to be offered.

It came just over a week after Just Eat confirmed a similar partnership with supermarket giant Asda, and as competition in the get-it-soon grocery delivery market continued to simmer.

“We’re always striving to offer our customers more choice, convenience and the very best service,” said Just Eat Takeaway’s UK managing director Andrew Kenny to City AM.

“This partnership enables us to do just that.”

Just Eat initially grew through its focus on providing local, independent takeaway outlets with a technology platform for online orders, but since merging with the Dutch Takeaway.com in early 2020, it has signed up large chains such as McDonald’s.

It has also been rolling out its own army of delivery riders in urban areas, making a point of hiring many as waged employees and supplying them with company-owned bikes, in contrast to the controversial contracting practises of the wider industry.

London-listed Deliveroo offers groceries from the Co-op, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, while the NYSE-traded Uber has partnerships with Asda, Iceland, Sainsbury’s and Shell.

Start-ups promising grocery delivery in urban areas in a matter of minutes have also proliferated across Europe, with German outfit Gorillas staging a massive marketing campaign in the UK after inking a trial partnership with Tesco in October.

Turkish firm Getir, meanwhile, acquired fledgling British service Weezy in November, while other names such as Dija, Jiffy and Zapp have been vying for attention amid the pandemic-induced explosion in delivery services.

At 1137 GMT, shares in Just Eat Takeaway were up 4.1% in London at 4,185p, while those in Tesco were down 0.68% at 286.55p.