Just Eat earnings up 62 per cent as the digital food business keeps piling on the pounds
Just Eat is gobbling up market share, with earnings up almost two-thirds in the first half of 2015 as the business says it expects at least two years of “over-performance”,
The figures
The digital food marketplace grew revenues 54 per cent to £107.8m in the six months to 30 June, while underlying EBITDA rose 62 per cent to £25.8m.
Just Eat now has 11m active users, accessing 59,000 takeaway restaurants. The number of orders taken through the business climbed 52 per cent to 41.9m, with like-for-like orders up 47 per cent.
Operating cashflow has risen to £26.5m – up from £15.4m in the same period last year – representing 103 per cent of underlying EBITDA.
All this means the company now expects full year revenue to come in at around £230m “with such revenue over-performance expected to continue into 2016”. EBITDA will be in line with expectations, with management having invested an additional £8m in marketing in core markets and £5m in technology and its growing Latin American teams.
Why it's interesting
This digital food business is getting tastier by the day.
It plans to invest more in technology and marketing to bolster growth, not least in its “early stage” markets of Brazil and Mexico.
And with all that cash swilling around, Just Eat is on the acquisiton trail: it completed the acquisition of Menulog Group in June, with a further seven M&A deals completed during the period.
What Just Eat said
Chief executive David Buttress said: “Just Eat has made a very strong start to 2015, increasing the numbers of active users, takeaway restaurants and orders. We have seen the success of our ongoing strategy to reinvest profits above target to drive additional growth.
“I am particularly pleased to see the results of our mobile strategy which has already created a much improved experience for our app and mobile users. We have acquired market-leading operations in three new rapidly growing markets of scale: Mexico, Australia and New Zealand.
“I would like to thank the entire Just Eat team, who have worked tirelessly to achieve these results."
In short
Just Eat is piling on the pounds (in a good way).