Just Eat profits sizzle in maiden results as mobile orders soar
SHARES in the world’s largest online takeaway service, Just Eat, rocketed yesterday after it reported an almost 200 per cent jump in half-year profit as the business expanded in Britain and Denmark, its two biggest markets.
Just Eat, which joined the London stock market in April, added more restaurants to its network and benefited from investment in its technology platform, which helped push its profits to £8.6m during the six months to 30 June.
“I am delighted with our excellent progress across the business in the first six months of 2014. We are accelerating our mobile strategy across all our geographies and in the UK over 56 per cent of orders are already being placed via apps or through a mobile device,” said chief executive David Buttress.
Just Eat’s shares closed up 9.3 per cent at 240p on the news, pushing the FTSE 250-listed firm to a market valuation of £1.35bn.
“Our growing network of more than 40,000 restaurant partners, combined with 6.9m active users, provides further momentum to fuel our expansion through the remainder of 2014 and beyond,” added Buttress.
Total orders rose a massive 50 per cent to 27.5m during the period, with revenue up 58 per cent to £69.8m. Denmark accounted for £6.5m of revenues, up 12 per cent.
Looking ahead, the company was bullish on future trading prospects, citing what the company sees as its inherently strong operational leverage.
Just Eat said it would remain focused on both the core takeaway delivery market and the “untapped collection/pick-up space”.