Deliveroo growth ‘materially ahead of expectations' despite reopening

Deliveroo has said its growth has been "materially ahead of expectations" for the first half of 2021, despite restaurants reopening as countries have exited lockdown restrictions.

The food delivery platform said that in recent months it had not seen a material impact on orders or average order value in the UK and Ireland. Its management's outlook for the remainder of the year was "optimistic but prudent", confident in continued year-on-year growth with an expectation that average order values will revert towards pre-pandemic levels.

In its half-year financials, the group reported revenues up 82% to £922.5m, primarily the result of increased orders, driven by growth in monthly active consumers. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was a loss of £27m, compared to a loss of £30.3m during the same period in 2020, as higher gross profit was largely offset by increased investments to support future growth.

Meanwhile, Deliveroo's statutory loss before tax improved to £104.8m compared to £128.4m in 2020. Deliveroo also now has the most food merchants in the UK of all delivery platforms.

Will Shu, founder and chief executive of Deliveroo, said: "We have reported strong performance in the first half of the year and continued to make good progress in executing our strategy. As a result, I believe that we are well positioned to take advantage of the huge opportunity ahead.

"We are seeing strong growth and engagement across our marketplace as lockdowns continue to ease. Demand has been high among consumers. 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. At the same time, more riders are choosing to continue to work with the company because they value the work we offer.

"As reflected in our guidance, while we expect that consumer behaviour may moderate later in the year, we remain excited about the opportunity ahead and our ability to capitalise on it."

Deliveroo has proposed to end its operations in Spain after the country legislated to classify workers in the delivery sector as employees.

The group recorded its highest share price this week since it floated on the London stock exchange in March, after German rival Delivery Hero bought a 5% stake in the company.

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