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FTSE 100: Just Eat Takeaway narrows losses despite order numbers fall

Just Eat cycle courier in the City of London on 27th June 2022 in London, United Kingdom. Just Eat Limited is a British online food order and delivery service founded in 2001 . It acts as an intermediary between independent takeaway food outlets and customers, with thousands of cycle couriers delivering food by bicycle and other forms of transport. Gig workers are independent contractors, online platform workers, contract firm workers, on-call workers and temporary workers. Gig workers enter into formal agreements with on-demand companies to provide services to the companys clients. (photo by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)
Just Eat took a €3.5bn impairment charge on Grubhub, which it bought in 2021. Photo: Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty (Mike Kemp via Getty Images)

Just Eat Takeaway (TKWY.AS) suffered a drop in orders for the first half of the year as a pandemic-fuelled boom in demand faded.

Europe's largest meal delivery company reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of negative €134m (£112m, $136.2m), compared with a loss of €189m in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue for the period was €2.78bn compared with €1.77bn for the same period in 2021.

Total orders fell 7% in the first half of 2022 due to the lifting of coronavirus lockdowns and fewer people ordering food to their homes.

Revenue in the UK and Ireland climbed 13% amid a push to improve profits from individual food sales.

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Gross transaction value (GTV) — a key metric for the industry — came in at €14.19bn compared with €14.12bn a year earlier.

Just Eat Takeaway's shares are down more than 60% this year, but were up 3% on Wednesday.

The company said its “path to profitability is accelerating” as it strives to swing into profit as a top priority in 2022.

But the takeaway company took a €3bn impairment charge as it wrote down the value of its US subsidiary Grubhub, which it bought in 2021.

In July, it announced that Amazon (AMZN) would take a stake in the businesses and Prime subscribers in the US would get free Grubhub+ membership for a year.

Read more: McDonald's raises price 99p cheeseburger as it passes rising costs to customers

Just Eat forked out €414m on marketing in the first six months of 2022, a 40% increase on last year, following the Grubhub acquisition and launching a costly advertising campaign with singer Katy Perry.

Just Eat said on Wednesday that it is still assessing the financial impact of the deal.

Chief executive Jitse Groen said: “After a period of exceptional growth, Just Eat Takeaway.com is now two times larger than it was pre-pandemic.

“Whilst this growth required significant investment, we have continued to focus on executing our strategy to build and operate highly profitable food delivery businesses.”

Watch: Katy Perry is the new face of Just Eat