Food delivery company Just Eat served up profits of €9.2 million at its Irish unit last year, a 95 per cent jump on the previous year as a result of "substantial increases in turnover" helped by growth in its market share.
The company, which agreed in August to merge with its Amsterdam-based rival, Takeaway. com, posted the increase in profit before tax as revenues rose almost 33 per cent to €27.2 million, according to recently filed accounts.
In 2017, the company reported a profit of €4.7 million on turnover of €20.5 million.
London-listed Just Eat serviced more than 26 million customers last year through the 100,000 restaurants listed on its website. Its services were available across Ireland, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Mexico and Brazil among other countries. Unlike its competitors, Just Eat does not directly employ delivery drivers. Across its business, Just Eat posted profit before tax of £101.7 million (€115.3 million) in 2018, meaning that its Irish arm contributed almost 8 per cent of group profit.
Just Eat Ireland Ltd paid a tasty dividend to its UK parent of €4 million during the year, the same as in 2017, and closed out the period with €13.49 million in cash in hand and at the bank.
Exclusive service
The company, which launched an exclusive delivery service with doughnut restaurant Krispy Kreme in March, employed 44 staff here in 2018, up from 36 the previous year, 24 of whom were in administration and customer care with the remainder working in sales and marketing functions. They received wage and salary payments of €1.9 million while the company also paid out €48,000 in redundancy costs.
Since then, Just Eat has gone on to make 26 of its staff in Dublin redundant as it centralises a number of functions. When the news became public, the company told The Irish Times that it planned to continue employing 30 staff here.
Just Eat has been operating in an increasingly crowded sector, a factor that contributed to its decision to merge with Takeaway.com in a deal that values the company at £5 billion.
The tie-up will create a food delivery group that had a combined 360 million orders worth €7.3 billion in 2018. Crucially for their combined battle with Uber Eats, the two companies don't currently have any significant geographical overlap with Takeaway.com dominant in Germany and eastern Europe.
The deal is expected to close by the end of this year.
