12th Aug 2014 06:55
LONDON (Alliance News) - Online takeaway food delivery service Just Eat PLC Tuesday reported strong profit and revenue growth in the first half of its financial year, driven by orders from mobile devices following the launch of its iPad app in the UK.
Just Eat, which floated on the London Stock Exchange earlier this year, reported pretax profit of GBP8.6 million for the six months to June 30, up from GBP3.1 million a year earlier, as revenue rose 58% to GBP69.8 million, up from GBP44.1 million in the first-half of 2013.
Just Eat said the launch of its iPad app in the UK helped push up orders from mobiles devices, with orders via mobile devices now accounting for over 50% of total orders, driving a 50% increase in customer orders overall to 27.5 million.
"Our growing network of more than 40,000 restaurant partners combined with 6.9 million active users provides further momentum to fuel our expansion through the remainder of 2014 and beyond," said Chief Executive David Buttress in a statement.
The recently listed FTSE 250 company gave a confident outlook for the business, and said trading since the end of the first half has remained strong.
"July's results continue to show significant year-on-year growth, and we are confident that this momentum will be maintained. Our inherently strong operational leverage should result in full year margin improvement in the UK," Buttress added.
Just Eat has been investing in technology, products and marketing, particularly in its mobile offering, an area it sees as a key driving of future growth. Another growth area it sees is the collection/pick-up markets.
"We remain focused on the opportunity ahead of us, both in our core takeaway delivery market and the untapped collection/pick-up space," said Buttress.
Just Eat currently operates in 13 geographies, including the UK and Denmark, and makes most of its revenue from commission charged to restaurants on the value of successful orders placed by customers. The UK is its biggest market, representing around 74% of revenue for the group.
Earlier this year the company acquired takeaway-specific electronic point of sale technology business Meal2Order.com Ltd for GBP3.7 million. Last month the group acquired start-up London-based collection-based online food app Orogo.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Just Eat