Delivery service Takeaway.com experiences sizeable growth

Takeaway, which owns Thuisbezorgd.nl and Pizza.be, has experienced an excellent fourth quarter with a 50 % increase in orders compared to last year’s fourth quarter.

Germany trails Netherlands

In its fourth quarter, which is its first since its IPO in October, Takeaway.com’s (bike) couriers delivered 54 % more restaurant meals, according to the Dutch group. Its impact on the company’s turnover and profit will only be revealed on 15 March.

Dutch online orders grew 38 % to 6 million orders on the back of the company’s acquisition of Just Eat’s Dutch operations. This means the country is its largest markets, but the German market is closing in: Takeaway subsidiary Lieferando.de grew an astonishing 55 % in the past quarter.

The company says it is almost as large as Germany’s number two and three (Lieferheld and Pizza.de), both owned by Rocket Internet-powered Delivery Hero. It is a feisty battle and Takeaway should pay attention according to Theodoor Gilissen Bankiers’ analyst Jos Versteeg. “Takeaway.com is very profitable in the Netherlands, but needs huge investments in Germany in order to obtain market share. If they miss the mark, Takeaway.com will instantly become an interesting acquisition target”, he said.

Poland and Austria

There are no separate Belgian results: Pizza.be is part of the “Others” category, which also includes Austria, Poland, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg and Portugal. Together, these countries just about doubled their orders, up 90 % to 3.5 million. The Polish division is several times larger than the local competition combined, while its Austrian division is about a third larger than the entire local competition.

For 2016, Takeaway.com processed 46 % more orders than in the year before: 49.3 million in total. CEO Jitse Groen attributes the growth to the IPO, allowing the company to invest more, and to the weakened competition after several acquisitions.