Eat Out scheme not affecting Just Eat's takeaway business

Online food delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway.com says it has not been affected by the Government’s Eat Out To Help Out scheme.

Chief executive Jitse Groen said that despite takeaways being excluded from the discount, the business is seeing "little effect".

He comments: “Food delivery is rarely in direct competition with restaurant visits, and that doesn’t change under these circumstances.”

Stating that restaurants have limited capacity because they can only seat a certain number of people, he adds: “We don’t believe that there will be a material impact on our figures because of these relief measures from the UK Government.”

The online food delivery giant reported a 44% increase in revenue to €1bn in the first half of the year, driven by the coronavirus lockdown.

Orders saw a 32% increase to around 257 million in the first six months of the year as takeaway outlets experienced a spike in demand.

The number of active customers also increased from 44 million to 54 million compared with the same time last year.

Jitse added: ”Just Eat Takeaway.com is in the fortunate position to benefit from continuing tailwinds.

"On the back of the current momentum, we started an aggressive investment programme, which we believe will further strengthen our market positions.

"We are convinced that our order growth will remain strong for the remainder of the year."

The half-year results were the first since the £6bn merger of the UK’s Just Eat and Amsterdam-based Takeaway.com was approved by the Competition and Markets Authority.

Just Eat Takeaway.com is in the process of buying US rival Grubhub, a deal expected to be completed early next year.