Deliveroo making “excellent progress on path to profitability”: Deliveroo has said that its revenue increased and its pre-tax loss narrowed in 2022, as it optimised consumer fees, made efficiency gains in the rider network and efficiently targeted marketing spend, but growth in Q1 “expected to be broadly flat”. The company reported a pre-tax loss of £230.6m in 2022 against a loss of £281.8m in 2021. It said it had made “excellent progress on path to profitability”, delivering positive adjusted Ebitda in H2 2022 at £6.6m compared to (£84.6m) in H2 2021 – “significantly ahead of expectations”. It also reported a “good year of growth in challenging market conditions” with gross profit up 30% to £643.2m, revenue up 14% to £1.974bn and gross transaction value (GTV) up 9% year-on-year to £6.848bn. Adjusted Ebitda loss for the year was £45m compared with an adjusted Ebitda loss of £100.0m in 2021. The business said it continued to make market share gains in the UK and Ireland and in key international markets such as France and Italy. Deliveroo said its average monthly active consumers grew by 6% year-on-year, averaging 7.4 million across 2022 compared to 7.0 million in 2021. The Q4 2022 average of 7.4 million represents a decline of 1% year-on-year versus Q4 2021, which it said reflected “the challenging macroeconomic environment in 2022”. It said that average order frequency throughout 2022 remained stable compared to 2021, at 3.4 times per month. The company said that three factors drove the majority of this profitability progression in 2022. It said: “First, we took steps to optimise consumer fees, such as ensuring delivery fees appropriately reflect delivery distance and adjusting the balance between delivery fees and service fees. Second, we continued to drive efficiency in our logistics network, through initiatives to further reduce rider wait time at restaurants, to better balance supply and demand in the network, and to capture efficiencies from order stacking without degrading the consumer experience. Third, we made adjustments during the year to optimise marketing spend, resulting in lower marketing expense in H2 than H1. Importantly, we continued to invest in our consumer proposition at the same time.” The company said that its GTV growth this year is anticipated to be low- to mid- single digits. It said: “Growth in Q1 expected to be broadly flat, with growth improving through the year as we continue to deliver on our plans and the comparison base eases. 2023 adjusted Ebitda expected to continue to improve and to be in the range of £20-50m, weighted to H2.” Will Shu, founder and chief executive of Deliveroo, said: “I’m proud of our performance in the past 12 months. Our team has delivered in difficult market conditions, with continued growth and share gains in our key markets. I’m particularly pleased that the company reached adjusted Ebitda profitability in the second half of last year. This is a significant step on our path to sustainable cash generation, and we achieved this milestone a year earlier than our guidance by executing our strategy successfully despite headwinds from the market environment. The macroeconomic outlook for the year ahead remains uncertain, but our record in the past 12 months makes me optimistic about our ability to adapt and continue to deliver on our plans to drive profitable growth. I want to thank the whole Deliveroo team and our consumers, riders and merchants for their ongoing commitment and I look forward to more progress together in 2023.”