Just Eat CFO steps down as group returns to profit
Just Eat Takeaway has said its chief financial officer Brent Wissink will step down next May as the group revealed it made a profit in the first half of the year.
Wissink, who has been with the company since 2011, will step down in May next year at the company’s AGM to puruse other “opportunities”, the firm said.
The takeaway delivery service posted adjusted EBITDA for the first half of the year of €143m (£122m), against a loss of €134m (£114m) for the same period last year.
Just Eat has engaged in a number of cost saving initiatives to shore up its balance sheet, as people shy away from ordering takeaways amid the cost of living crisis.
Following the pandemic, the demand for food delivery services fell off as restaurants and high streets reopened.
“Ongoing focus on efficiency in delivery operations as well as general costs saving initiatives were the main reasons for this increase,” the firm said.
In Europe and its UK and Ireland segment, gross transaction value (GTV) increased by one per cent constant currency in the first half of the year 2023 compared with the same period last year.
But across the business the number of orders placed declined four per cent in total.
“Since our IPO, our objective has been to build and extend large scale and sustainably profitable positions in our markets,” Jitse Groen, CEO and founder of Just Eat Takeaway.com, said.
“With the majority of our orders coming from Northern Europe and UK and Ireland, these two segments returning to growth in the second quarter of 2023 is a key milestone. Encouragingly, UK and Ireland is on its way to a similarly high profit margin as Northern Europe,” he said.
He added: “The remainder of the business is also showing improving GTV growth and profitability trends, leading to the company fast approaching its positive free cash flow target.”