Just Eat grew revenues by 49 per cent in the first quarter of 2018, off the back of a 32 per cent increase in order numbers, beating market expectations.
The group reported revenue of $177.4m in the first three months of the year, up from £118.9m last year.
UK orders rose 24 per cent to 29.7 million, which included 1.4 million orders from Hungryhouse , which Just Eat bought for £200m last year . The fact that the Easter holiday weekend fell within the first quarter also helped, adding an estimated 1 percentage point to order growth in the UK.
International orders rose 46 per cent, meanwhile, hitting 21.9 million due mainly to “triple digit order growth” in Canada and strong performances in Italy and Spain.
Chief executive said the group had made a “strong start to the year” and highlighted the firm’s “continued momentum” in its Canadian delivery service SkipTheDishes.
However, performance in Just Eat’s Australian business did not match up to the rest of the business.
Steve Clayton at Hargreaves Lansdown said: “The big questions surrounding the group remain unanswered... in Australia where a revamp of Menulog was mishandled last year, progress is still below par, whilst the profitability of the group’s delivery services is yet to be proven, compared to its wildly successful Marketplace core offering.
“The numbers today are clearly impressive, but the market is likely to wait for answers to the big questions before passing final judgement on the group’s prospects.”
Shares in the group were up 4.3 per cent in morning trading.
