The online food delivery company Just Eat announced today the acquisition of two of its competitors, SkipTheDishes and Hungryhouse. The combined value of the two deals is over £266 million.
Just Eat Hungry For Expansion
First started in Denmark in 2001, Just Eat is now one of the world’s leading food delivery services with the presence on the London Stock Exchange since 2014. They connect 15 million customers with 60,000 restaurant partners across 13 markets around the globe. Their latest move proves they’re hungry for expansion. And they should be – without growth, they could be soon swallowed by another giant in this increasingly tight and competitive market. Hungryhouse, previously owned by Delivery Hero, is currently one of their most serious rivals in the UK with a comparable market share. Taking them out of the picture will definitely make things easier on the domestic front while buying SkipTheDishes will accelerate their expansion in Canada.
Innovative Competition
With those two competitors taken care of, Just Eat can now focus on dealing with more serious players like UberEATS, Amazon Prime, and Deliveroo. How can it beat them? Well, autonomous delivery robots might be the way to go! Earlier this year Just Eat announced they would cooperate with Starship Technologies, a startup building delivery robots. We didn’t have to wait long for the first results. On December 1st, Just Eat reported the first ever robot takeaway delivery. The happy customer had no idea what was going to happen. You can imagine her surprise when a robot showed up at her doorstep with her order from a local Turkish restaurant. Here’s what she had to say:
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened the door to find a robot waiting to greet me – it was like something out of a movie. It is really incredible to think that this kind of technology and service is now available. It was very efficient and actually texted me when it pulled up. The only thing I wasn’t sure of is whether or not to tip!”
We can’t wait to see more of these racing through our streets. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait long. It seems that the delivery robot trend is catching on – check out our post on Relay to find out more.
