Deliveroo Profits Rise Despite ‘Uncertain Consumer Environment’

Consumer protection in the United Kingdom is not enough to prevent Deliveroofourth quarter earnings performance.

The online food and delivery company saw an uptick in revenue and gross transaction value (GTV), according to Thursday (Jan. 16) press release.

During an earnings call with analysts, management singled out the UK, its home base and largest market.

“I think so in the UK, especially we are happy,” founder and CEO Shu said on the call. “We’ve seen GTV grow by 9% year-on-year, and that’s it as opposed to 7% in the third quarter. And I think what’s really good is that we’re seeing continued order growth momentum. So, the fourth quarter was a 5% year-over-year increase. Q1 is flat.

He later said that was there is “another uncertain environment for UK consumers, and so for the team to execute the way they did, we’re proud of that performance.”

Expand it Later in the call, Shu said the company saw continued strong performance from the fast-commerce/grocery segment and on retail delivery.

“And there seems to be … secular shifts happening in faster shipping, smaller baskets versus, you know, what we saw five years ago,” he said. “The food segment is also growing well. But as we said, the grocery segment … is the Really driving significant growth for in general company.”

Elsewhere, Deliveroo saw slight improvement in France after some disruption due to the Paris Olympics in the third quarter.however Shu said there is “continued softness in the market” that other companies operating there are witnessing as well.

Other problem areas include Hong Kong, which Shu described as a “competitive environment … which is a drag on growth.”

This is one of the densest places in the earth, in terms of traders and consumers, he said later in the call.

“And this is a place that is in history filled with a culture of convenience, right?” he said. “And so, we think it’s a good market because of that. And while we’ve flagged various earnings calls, it’s been a challenging situation for almost a year now.

The company’s earnings came as other players in the delivery space struggled. For example, the start of food delivery in France Grocery it was announced extinguish in December.

Weeks earlier, the food delivery was huge packing Eat Takeaway sold Grubhub at the start of delivery surprise at 90% loss.