Deliveroo orders double in first results since IPO
Food delivery group narrows six-month pre-tax loss as sales pick up 82%
Deliveroo narrowed its pre-tax losses by almost a fifth to £104.8m in the first half, as revenue rose 82 per cent to £922.5m and orders doubled, the food delivery company said in its first results since March’s initial public offering.
The London-based company delivered 148.8m meals and groceries in the first six months of 2021, twice as many orders as in the same period a year ago. Monthly active consumers increased 81 per cent year on year to 7.8m people.
While food delivery services have been a big beneficiary of pandemic lockdowns, Deliveroo said it had seen “no material impact” from the UK lifting most of its Covid-19 restrictions. Gross transaction value, which is a measure of the total value of goods ordered including fees, in its largest market rose 110 per cent compared with the first half of last year. Its UK expansion is “well ahead” of its target and its services can now reach 72 per cent of the population.
Gross profit margin improved by 100 basis points to 7.8 per cent.
Ahead of the figures, shares in Deliveroo had risen around 12 per cent this week to 363p, after German rival Delivery Hero disclosed a 5 per cent stake on Monday. However, Deliveroo has yet to return to the 390p price at which it initially went public, after falling by more than a quarter on its first day of trading.
“We are seeing strong growth and engagement across our marketplace as lockdowns continue to ease. Demand has been high amongst consumers,” said Will Shu, chief executive and co-founder of Deliveroo. “We have widened our consumer base, seen people continuing to order frequently and we now work with more food merchants than any other platform in the UK.”
Deliveroo upgraded its growth outlook last month but Shu reiterated that the company expects “consumer behaviour may moderate later in the year”.