Food delivery services see Covid-related surge
Food delivery company Deliveroo said it signed up more than 600 new restaurants since January this year as more outlets supplied delivery services due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
The company said that 64% of the new sign-ups were in Dublin, 11% in Cork; while Galway and Limerick saw a 6% and 4% increase respectively, as well as growth in Northern Ireland with 15% in Belfast.
Launched in 2015, Deliveroo is one of a number of firms in the food delivery market. They currently have 1,000 self-employed serving and 1,800 restaurants.
It recently launched a partnership with supermarket chain Aldi to offer grocery deliveries from certain stores.
Globally, the food delivery sector has seen massive growth in 2020. In the US, the car-sharing service Uber generated more revenue from delivering food than transporting people for the first time last quarter.
However, it failed to offset a steep and prolonged decline in ridership brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Sales fell 29% in the second quarter to $2.24bn, ending a decade of unchecked growth.
Delivery revenue, which was growing even before the pandemic, surged 103% during the quarter and is now central to Uber’s strategy. Uber has begun delivering other items including groceries, prescriptions, and packages.
“Delivery is clearly one of the major beneficiaries of Covid-19, bolstering UberEats as well as competitors GrubHub and DoorDash," said JMP Securities analyst Ron Josey.
