Just Eat sees profits increase but orders drop

Just Eat has reported a 10% drop in fourth-quarter orders in the UK and Ireland but improved profitability overall.

The online food delivery platform generated adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) amounting to approximately €150 million – or 1.1% of gross transaction values (GTV) – in the second half of 2022, a significant improvement from minus €134 million in the first half of the year.

This, it said, was driven by improved revenue per order, delivery costs per order and overheads and operating expenditure.

Full year adjusted EBITDA also improved to approximately €16 million in 2022, up from minus €350 million in 2021. The largest contributions to the second half improvement were driven by three operating segments: North America, Southern Europe and ANZ, and UK and Ireland.

In the UK and Ireland, 65.4 million online orders were processed in the fourth quarter of 2022, down 10% on the previous year, and 260.3 million orders across the year, also down 10% on 2021.n

Full year 2022 GTV was stable compared with €28.2 billion in the prior year, driven by a higher Average Transaction Value and positive FX movements, which offset lower Order volumes. Full year GTV in the UK and Ireland was down 1% at 6.6bn.

Looking ahead, Just Eat said that the focus will remain on profitability and expects to deliver a positive Adjusted EBITDA of approximately €225 million in 2023.