Just Eat Takeaway CFO Brent Wissink is stepping down to “pursue other opportunities” and will resign from the board next May.
CEO Jitse Groen expressed “regret” over losing his “outstanding” CFO as the food delivery group kicked off a search to find a successor.
Wissink joined Just Eat as COO in 2011 and led the integration of businesses in Europe into the wider group before becoming CFO in 2014. Prior to this, he was CFO of fast-growing technology business Nedstat and worked in venture capital.
“It has been an honour to have been part of the Just Eat Takeaway.com journey over the past years,” Wissink said.
“Since 2011, when I joined the company, the company transformed from a local Dutch player into one of the world’s leading global online food delivery marketplaces. I look forward to continuing working with the team to ensure a smooth transition and to help identify my successor.”
Groen added: “There are always many fathers of success in stories such as ours, but there are only few that actually deserve that title.
“Brent is a clear father of the success of JET, and I am confident that we would have not made it this far without him. I regret to lose him, but of course understand that it is time for Brent to pursue new challenges.
“Brent is not only an outstanding CFO, but he has also always been a driving force of the business, and perhaps even more important, a JET culture carrier.”
Chairman Dick Boer said the group respected Wissink’s rationale and “regretfully accepted” his resignation.
“Brent can be proud of what has been achieved since he joined the company, from the first-ever investor round in 2011, the initial public offering in 2016 to multiple mergers and acquisitions,” he added.
The resignation overshadowed a return to profitability for Just Eat in the first half, bouncing from a €134m (£115m) adjusted EBITDA loss a year ago to a profit of €143m (£122.7m) thanks to a focus on efficiency and general cost savings. Pre-tax losses in the half also reduced from €3.5bn (£3bn) to €317m (£272m).
The group reported that its core UK & Ireland and Northern Europe divisions also returned to growth in the second quarter of 2023, with year-on-year gross transaction value (GTV) growth of 1% and 4% respectively.
However, total orders in the half fell 15% year on year, while a higher average transaction value wasn’t enough to stop GTV falling 7% to €13.2bn (£11.3bn).
Shares in Just Eat have jumped 4.6% to 1,442p so far today on news of renewed profitability.
No comments yet