Deliveroo narrowed its pre-tax losses by almost a fifth to £104.8m in the first half, as revenue rose 82% to £922.5m and orders doubled, the food delivery company said in its first results since March’s initial public offering (The Financial Times £).
Deliveroo doubled the number of orders from customers to 149m in the first six months of the year as the appetite for takeaways continued to grow despite the reopening of bars and restaurants (The Guardian).
Gross transaction value also doubled from £1.7bn to £3.38bn as demand continued to remain strong even when curbs on eating out were loosened (The Mail)
Deliveroo’s share price rally came to a juddering halt yesterday amid fears about profit margins and a warning from its founder that consumer behaviour “may moderate” in the second half (The Times £).
Shares in Deliveroo fell 6% as a pandemic boom in food deliveries showed signs of slowing down (The Mail).
Will Shu has played down speculation that Deliveroo could be a target for a merger after a larger German rival, Delivery Hero, took a stake in the London-listed company (The Telegraph).
The Lex column in The Financial Times (£) says the food delivery group has had a smoother ride since its London listing but is still in a precarious position. The paper also looks at whether a takeover by Delivery Hero is a possibility and argues that for “a weak player in a tough market, a deal with a larger rival should at least be on the menu”.
A feature in The Times (£) weighs up whether the grocery delivery apps live up to their promises.
Vectura’s board faces a tough decision over the inhaler maker’s future as they weigh up offers from a cigarette giant and a private equity firm (The Mail).
Labour’s shadow health secretary and anti-smoking charities have called on the board of Vectura not to recommend the Philip Morris International takeover bid to shareholders (The Times £).
“Marlboro Man’s bid for inhaler-maker Vectura exposes ethical investing as a sham,” The Telegraph thunders in its City commentary.
Pret a Manger staff are considering strike action after the coffee shop chain told them it was permanently cutting pay despite the easing of trading restrictions (The Guardian).
Morrisons will close its almost 500 shops on Boxing Day giving more than 110,000 staff the day off (BBC News).
John Lewis is to open a 1m sq ft warehouse in Milton Keynes that will employ 500 people as it tries to meet surging demand for online shopping (The Guardian).
The department stores chain said that it had signed an agreement with Tesco to lease the site for 11 years (The Times £).
Wendy’s has stepped up its plans to expand in Britain after its quarterly results beat forecasts (The Times £).
Wendy’s, the US burger chain, has announced an expansion into “dark kitchens” as it boosts its footprint across the US, UK and Canada on the back of record profits (The Financial Times £).
The company, which is returning to the UK more than 20 years after beating a retreat, said it would open up to 10 of the delivery-only kitchens by the end of this year, some of which could be run from trucks (The Guardian).
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