Food delivery specialist Deliveroo has reported growth “materially ahead of expectations” in its first half, when performance proved resilient as Covid restrictions eased.

Deliveroo has also poached former Amazon supply chain tsar Devesh Mishra as chief product and technology officer.

Deliveroo, which was in high demand among consumers at the height of the pandemic and has partnerships with several big grocers as well as restaurants, said that gross transaction value rose 102% to £3.39bn in the period.

That drove an 82% uplift in revenue to £922.5m. Deliveroo’s statutory loss before tax fell to  £104.8m compared to £128.4m the previous year, while the adjusted EBITDA  loss was cut to £27m versus £30.3m.

By the end of the first half, Deliveroo said it was delivering from 1,800 grocery sites with big grocer partners, which include Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, compared to 1,200 at the end of last year. Including independent retailers, Deliveroo is serving 4,600 grocery locations.

Deliveroo founder and chief executive Will Shu said: ”We have reported strong performance in the first half of the year and continued to make good progress. As a result, I believe that we are well positioned to take advantage of the huge opportunity ahead.

“We are seeing strong growth and engagement across our marketplace as lockdowns continue to ease. Demand has been high amongst consumers. We have widened our consumer base, seen people continuing to order frequently and we now work with more food merchants than any other platform in the UK. At the same time, more riders are choosing to continue to work with the company because they value the work we offer.

“Whilst we expect that consumer behaviour may moderate later in the year, we remain excited about the opportunity ahead and our ability to capitalise on it.”

Deliveroo yesterday revealed the hire of Meshra, who worked for Amazon for 16 years, most recently as vice president, global supply chain, overseeing a team of thousands of engineers, data scientists and product managers, operating a supply chain spanning 185 markets.

He will take up his new role in September and will join Deliveroo’s executive team reporting directly to Shu. 

Meshra said: “I’m humbled and excited to join Will and the Deliveroo team to become the ‘definitive food company’. I love building cutting-edge technology and products to provide the best customer experience and scale businesses globally. We are at the inflection point in how our customers eat and their relationship with food.

”I’m excited to be part of a company leading that change in such a large and important market. Deliveroo has reached a super impressive scale with an impressive growth rate, but there is a lot of opportunity ahead and lots of building to do.”

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