Just Eat fattens sales outlook after orders lift

Online takeaways giant Just Eat today used upbeat six-month figures to raise its full-year sales guidance after a boom in customers ordering food at home.

It shrugged off a string of management changes to lift revenue guidance to between £500 million and £515 million from a range of £480 million to £495 million.

But investors fretted as profits are likely to be reinvested, sending the shares down 4% to 681p.

In the past six months, former chief executive David Buttress stepped down for family reasons and chairman John Hughes passed away after a short illness. Peter Plumb is joining as chief executive from Moneysupermarket.

Pre-tax profit rose to £49.5 million for the six months to June from £33.8 million on sales of £246.6 million. This was boosted by a 24% rise in orders to 80.4 million.

Interim chief executive Paul Harrison said: “Takeaways are part of the culture in the UK and we are finding new ways to make it easier for customers to order food from home.”

He is testing a robot in Greenwich which has delivered 1000 orders, and customers can now use Amazon’s Alexa device.