Ten years since its inception, Deliveroo has finally hit EBITDA profitability, though it remains far from its ultimate aim of becoming fully profitable after posting a loss of more than a quarter of a billion pounds.
The food delivery business posted a 14% increase in revenues to just shy of £2 billion for 2022, while its EBITDA margin hit 0.2% in the second half of the year, up from -1.5%.
Losses for the year were slimmed £36 million to £294 million. That would mean it would take another nine years to reach profitability if the firm continued to pare back losses at the current rate.
Deliveroo shares fell 2.1% to 87p.
Deliveroo boss Will Shu said: “The macroeconomic outlook for the year ahead remains uncertain, but our record in the past twelve months makes me optimistic about our ability to adapt and continue to deliver on our plans to drive profitable growth.”
Chris Beauchamp, Chief Market Analyst at trading platform IG Group, said: “Deliveroo is showing encouraging signs of a return to growth, as order levels recover, but there is still a long way to go.
“Hopefully as inflation eases the firm’s task will get easier, as consumers move back to takeaways after a year or more of having their incomes squeezed.”
The number of orders in the UK and Ireland climbed 7% in the year to 158 million, while the value of each order rose 1% to £24.50, indicating it had fallen in real terms as consumers tightened their belts amid soaring inflation.
There were signs Deliveroo’s growth was heading towards a slowdown after active customer numbers fell in the final months of 2022 and year-on-year order numbers declined. That stands in stark contrast to pizza delivery firm Domino’s, which last week said sales were up 14% in the fourth quarter of 2022 amid a record 39 pizzas a second sold by the business during the England-USA World Cup match.
Deliveroo said it hoped to make further progress on profitability in 2023.
