Just Eat reports turnover and Ebitda growth: Just Eat has reported revenue up 44% to €1 billion, and adjusted Ebitda of €177 million in the first six months of this year. Jitse Groen, chief executive of Just Eat Takeaway.com N.V, said: “Just Eat Takeaway.com is in the fortunate position to benefit from continuing tailwinds. The United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, and Brazil are performing particularly strongly. Our businesses have healthy gross margins, and all our segments are adjusted Ebitda positive. On the back of the current momentum, we started an aggressive investment programme, which we believe will further strengthen our market positions. We are convinced that our order growth will remain strong for the remainder of the year.” The company added: “The most important drivers of the network effects supporting the business model improved significantly. In the last twelve months, Just Eat Takeaway.com added a record number of new restaurants and active consumers. At the same time the number of orders per returning active consumer and the churn also improved, leading to a significant acceleration of top-line growth. Just Eat Takeaway.com processed 257 million orders in the first six months of 2020, representing a 32% increase compared with the first half of 2019, driven by strong accelerated order growth in the second quarter of 2020 compared with the first quarter of 2020. Revenue grew by 44% to €1 billion in the first six months of 2020, compared with €715 million in the first half of 2019. Adjusted Ebitda for Just Eat Takeaway.com increased by 133% to €177 million in the first six months of 2020, compared with €76 million in the first half of 2019. This strong improvement was mainly driven by gross margin growth. Loss for the period was €158 million in the first six months of 2020, compared with a loss of €27 million in the first half of 2019. The loss was mainly driven by amortisation, advisory, transaction and integration related expenses connected to the combination of Just Eat and Takeaway.com and the proposed transaction with Grubhub. The integration with Just Eat is on track and progressing well. To benefit from global brand recognition, all of Just Eat Takeaway.com’s brands now share the same logo. Furthermore, in the first week of June, the Swiss business was successfully migrated to Just Eat Takeaway.com’s central European IT platform and other markets will follow in due course. Management believes the Just Eat brands, despite their current strong growth, have seen underinvestment in recent years. To strengthen, expand or recapture market-leading positions throughout our territories, we have embarked on an aggressive investment programme and will invest significantly in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Italy, Spain, France and several other ex-Just Eat markets. In Brazil, iFood continued its strong momentum with revenue growth of 261%. Order growth almost doubled year-on-year, reaching just short of 200 million orders in the first six months of 2020. On 10 June 2020, the company announced the proposed all-share transaction with Grubhub. It is currently expected that the company’s shareholder circular will be published towards the end of August 2020 and the EGM will be held in October 2020. Subject to satisfaction of conditions, completion of the transaction is anticipated to occur in the first half of 2021.”

Sky investigation finds pubs and bars not asking for customer contact details: Pubs and bars in England are ignoring covid-19 guidance, potentially putting public health at risk, a Sky News investigation has claimed. Sky reported: “An undercover team visited a variety of hospitality venues in one Greater Manchester suburb, posing as walk-in customers. Nine out of ten venues visited were not following government guidance by asking for customer contact details. In two venues, social distancing was being ignored. The investigation has led to calls for local authorities to be given greater powers to shut or take action against venues not following the guidance. Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham told Sky News he was ‘really disappointed’ and warned that pubs would need to “get their houses in order’. The venues visited are in a Greater Manchester borough where covid-19 cases are rising. New lockdown restrictions in this area mean that customers should only be visiting pubs, bars, cafes and restaurants with others in their household or support bubbles. Although the local authorities say they do not expect businesses to police who customers are interacting with, they do expect staff to follow guidance on collecting customer contact tracing details. Staff at one pub told Sky News’ team ‘no, it’s okay’ when asked if contact details should be left ahead of leaving the premises. Although in England it is not mandatory for pubs and bars to collect details, the government says venues ‘should assist’ the test and trace programmes “by keeping a temporary record of your customers and visitors for 21 days’.” In a statement, a Department of Health and Social care spokesperson said: “The NHS test and trace service is an integral part of the government’s coronavirus recovery strategy, designed to help us return to a more normal way of life and reduce the risk of needing local lockdowns in the future. This government is playing its part by supporting the hospitality sector through polices like Eat out to Help Out and so it is vital these businesses play their part too so we can all help stop the spread of the virus.” The Scottish government will this weekend implement legislation that makes it mandatory by law for hospitality venues to ask customers for their details.