How Just Eat is devouring its competitors and changing takeaways forever
We’ve all been there — coming home tired to a sparsely-stocked refrigerator and the subsequent sinking feeling as you’re left looking at some mouldy mushrooms, two potatoes sprouting alien life, and a jar of pasta sauce a month past its sell-by date.
Who ya gonna call? Well, Just Eat actually. Just Eat’s rapid growth and economic success as an online takeaway business indicates that rather a lot of us have days like the above fairly regularly.
Initially founded in Denmark in 2001 by entrepreneurs Jesper Buch and Bo Bendtsen, Just Eat set its sights on expansion from the off. By 2005 Buch and Bendtsen had moved the company to the UK and Just Eat now operates in France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand. The thing is, in order to be successful on a global scale, you need a great business model. So what does Just Eat offer? In short, Just Eat has revolutionized how restaurants around the world engage with their customers by bringing greater choice and convenience to the takeaway ordering process.
Their website provides customers with an instant overview of menus from more than 30,000 restaurants and hungry users can search for their favorite type of cuisine, even skimming through reviews, ensuring they get the best meal for them at the best price available.
Solely in the UK, Just-Eat has partnered with over 11,000 restaurants and delivers more than 100,000 meals a day, taking an 11% commission from every order. With its current growth, it’s fast becoming the UK’s most popular food and drink website and enjoys the use of over 26 million users globally. The company claims to generate over $500m (£312m) a year in revenue and expects revenue to come in between £1bn and £1.1bn in 2021.
As with so many successful start-ups, it’s about plugging a gap in the market — providing supply to a mass consumer demand. Just Eat’s CEO David Buttress hit the nail on the head by stating:
“I am in no way a visionary but I do remember always having massive conviction that the takeaway market would explode. I’d seen the digital revolution in hotels and flights. I knew that people wouldn’t be ordering from takeaway menus over the phone forever. It wasn’t a question of if, but when, and who would make it happen.”
Staying at the top
One thing is getting to the top of your chosen industry, but another thing is staying there. Just Eat knows it has to remain connected with its customer base, continuing to provide the service its users want.
This is done by entering into partnerships with the restaurants that Just Eat’s customers want to order from, meaning that a large part of staying successful is being socially aware. Communication is key and in the 21st century, communication means improved investment in technology.
Just Eat CEO Klaus Nyengaard has previously explained how a large chunk of a £39 million investment was spent on improved technology to make the website more user-friendly. Now, after the installation of some tech called JustConnect, restaurants can receive and confirm orders while keeping the phone line completely free.
The box runs on electricity and it doesn’t even need an internet connection. Simple but effective. So where now for Just Eat? There is, after all, a conspicuous gap in the list of countries where Just Eat operates — the U.S. Nyengaard has previously been coy about expanding into the U.S. and although Just Eat is highly successful in Canada proving that tapping into the North American market is feasible, consolidation seems to be Just Eat’s buzzword.
“We didn’t want to look to the U.S. simply because it’s a very big market and entering it would have been a major distraction. I think now’s the time to really consolidate our existing portfolio and look at markets that are closer to home.” — Klaus Nyengaard, CEO Just Eat
However, with mass expansion and staggering growth in Europe, Asia and Oceania, with London acting as an international business hub, everyone at Just Eat is focused on building up this international success story even further.
“I believe we’re just scratching the surface in this industry. From new food types to new delivery methods, novel communications between customers and restaurants, and the smart use of data, there is still a whole lot of innovation still to come.” — CEO David Buttress
So, to sum up, it seems that everyone at Just Eat recognizes that investing in improved technology is the way forward, leading to business growth and increased revenue. However, they’re not alone in realizing that.
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