By Paul Sandle
LONDON, March 16 (Reuters) – Deliveroo, the British food delivery company that has seen demand soar during the pandemic, said it would make up to 50 million pounds ($60 million) in profit operating this year, at a time when you are focusing on profitability, in a more challenging consumer environment.
In the second half of 2022, the 10-year-old company posted adjusted operating profit of £6.6 million, compared to losses of £84.6 million the previous year and £51.6 million. in the first semester.
Chief executive Will Shu said Deliveroo had made “a lot of progress on the road to profitability” despite a challenging consumer environment, noting it had reached operating breakeven in the second half.
“It’s obviously one of the milestones to become more profitable, but I think we’re very proud of it because we reached it 12 to 18 months ahead of schedule and in 2023 we expect to continue making progress,” did he declare. in a statement interviewed Thursday.
Shu explained that the improvement was due to consumption fee optimization, lower marketing spend and new advertising revenue on its platform.
Deliveroo said in January that the number of orders fell 2% in the last quarter, although inflation helped the total value rise by 6% to 1.8 billion pounds.
Shu said “it’s not the easiest time” for consumers, even though confidence “has improved slightly in recent weeks.”
But the outlook remains volatile, he added.
(1 US dollar = 0.8280 pounds) (Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing in Spanish by Tomás Cobos)