How Just Eat's earnings jumped from £15m to £219m last year

Dutch-based Just Eat Takeaway.com reported earnings of £219m for 2020, up from £15m in 2019 thanks to a 42 per cent leap in orders.

It saw UK orders jump 35 per cent over the year and said this had accelerated further in the current lockdown, with pubs and restaurants forced to shut across Britain.

The group said UK orders were 88 per cent higher in the first two months of 2021, with delivery orders up by more than 600 per cent compared with a year earlier.

And the firm - the world's largest online takeaway platform - said it expects to see order growth ramp up even further in 2021.

Chief executive Jitse Groen said: "2020 was an exceptional year for Just Eat Takeaway.com.

"This (the pandemic) brought unprecedented challenges to our restaurants, consumers, as well as to our organisation and staff, but it also created tailwinds for our business.

"In the second half of the year, we increased our investments into the legacy Just Eat business significantly, building on our position as one of the largest food delivery companies in the world.

"Our revenue grew 54 per cent in 2020, and we expect a further acceleration of our order growth in 2021 compared with last year."

The firm said growth in the UK was helped by its partnerships with McDonald's and bakery chain Greggs with delivery orders more than doubling year on year in 2020 and up 260% in the second half.

But despite the impressive sales performance, UK earnings growth remained muted - with an increase of 2 per cent to £185m as the firm prioritised investing in boosting its market share by spending heavily on marketing and expanding its sales team.

On a bottom-line basis, the group reported widening pre-tax losses of £126m against £75m the previous year due to costs of Takeaway.com's £6.2bn acquisition of Just Eat in 2019 and its planned takeover of Grubhub.

Just Eat Takeaway.com has been on a buying spree of rivals in recent years to cement its position as the world's biggest online takeaway platform - with a takeover of Grubhub approved on October 7.

It came after Takeaway.com last year sealed its deal to buy Just Eat, after a long and bitter takeover battle.

The UK's competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), gave the move the green light in April.

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James Mitchinson