The British food delivery platform Deliveroo, big winner of the pandemic, announced on Wednesday that it had reduced its losses in the first half of the year thanks to a surge in sales and without suffering from deconfinement.
Read also: Meal delivery: German Delivery Hero buys 5% of Deliveroo
Its net loss reached 108.7 million over the period, against 126.2 million a year earlier, according to a statement from the company which reveals its first full financial results since its IPO in March.
Deliveroo remains in losses, given the heavy investments required to finance its growth, in particular with the increase in the number of deliverers to meet the very strong demand.
The group saw its turnover jump 82% to 922.5 million pounds in the first six months of the year.
The number of orders, whether for meals or groceries, doubled to 148.8 million.
Deliveroo took full advantage of the health crisis, which has pushed many Britons to have a meal delivered to their homes, given the closure of restaurants during lockdowns.
Growth in the gross value of transactions between 50 to 60%
Its sales remain so far up sharply, despite already high activity levels and easing of health restrictions.
Deliveroo said it had not seen a "
significant impact
" of the reopening of the economy during the second quarter in the United Kingdom, its main market.
“
We are seeing strong growth and strong customer engagement across all of our markets as restrictions are lifted,
” said Will Shu, Founder and CEO of Deliveroo. The group maintains its forecast for the whole of 2021, which it communicated in July, "
although we expect to see a moderation in the consumption habits of our customers for the rest of the year,
" warns Will Shu . It aims for gross transaction value (GTV) growth of between 50 to 60%. Its gross margin should be in the lower end of the 7.5 to 8% range, given a "
acceleration of investments intended to feed growth, and an expectation of seeing the average basket return in the second half of 2021 to pre-pandemic levels,
”according to the group.
Read also: How Deliveroo industrialized home meal delivery
The title fell 3.099% on the London Stock Exchange around 0900 GMT. However, it had jumped at the beginning of the week against the backdrop of a 5% stake taken by its German competitor Delivery Hero. The action had then approached the 390 pence of IPO, an operation which in March had immediately turned into a fiasco, the price collapsing the first days. Since then, the title has slowly recovered, benefiting from the increase in sales of the group. Deliveroo, present in a dozen countries, revealed at the end of July that it plans to leave Spain, where the law will oblige, from August 12, home meal applications to pay their delivery people.
"
Critics of Deliveroo will continue to highlight the problems related to the way it treats its delivery people and the fact that it is still far from making a profit
", in a very competitive sector with in particular Uber Eats and JustEat Takeaway, remarks Danni Hewson, analyst at AJ Bell. However, a takeover of Deliveroo by Delivery Hero seems "
premature
", in particular because Will Shu still controls the company thanks to a system of two types of shares and can therefore refuse any operation for another three years, according to him.
