UK and Ireland orders on Deliveroo (ROO.L) surpassed the £1bn mark for the first time in the last three months of 2022, as price inflation of items ordered drove gains.
Gross transaction value (GTV), a measure of the size of total orders, climbed 9% to £1.03bn in the UK and Irish market pushed by higher prices amid double digit inflation.
On average, a person in the UK or Ireland was paying £25.40 for an order in the last three months of 2022. That’s 9% more than the average £23.40 paid in the same three months of 2021.
In the UK and Ireland, order numbers remained flat at 40.6 million.
Overall, the firm said total order numbers fell 2% across the group to 75.1 million in the final three months of the year.
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The company said in a statement that the gross transaction value (GTV) of its orders for its continuing operations increased 6% to £1.8bn in the fourth quarter, as item price inflation offset a 2% drop in order numbers.
Deliveroo said underlying earnings were around break even for the second half, with its margin performance better than feared thanks in part to moves to rein in costs.
It added that underlying earnings are expected to improve throughout 2023.
Founder and chief executive Will Shu said Deliveroo had delivered “significant improvements in profitability whilst also still delivering growth in a difficult macroeconomic environment”.
“Amidst an uncertain outlook for 2023, we remain confident in our ability to adapt financially and to make continued progress on our path to profitability,” he said in a trading update.
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The loss-making company, which pulled out of Australia and the Netherlands in 2022, had previously expected its earnings margin for the year to be between -1.2% and -1.5%.
The figures come as takeaway delivery firms are seeing a sharp slowdown in orders, with demand hit amid a wider pull back in consumer spending in the cost crisis, with growth also easing back after a pandemic-driven boom during 2020 and 2021.
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