Just Eat to consume Australia’s Menulog success
Australia’s love for takeaway meals is a major reason for the UK’s online delivery service Just Eat moving to acquire Australia’s equivalent Menulog for $A855 million.
The Australian and New Zealand delivery market is worth $A 3 billion and growing.
“The acquisition of Menulog, a business with strong leadership in an attractive and fast-growing market, is fully consistent with this approach and will be an important addition to the Just Eat business,” said Just Eat CEO David Buttress.
“The Menulog founders have together built a great business and I look forward to working closely with Menulog’s CEO and his experienced management team in the coming months.”
Menulog is the market leader in Australia and New Zealand for online takeaway and has investors including James Packer and SEEK co-founder Andrew Bassat.
“I am very excited about the prospect of Menulog becoming part of Just Eat, which has been a real inspiration for us as we have grown in the Australian and New Zealand markets,” said Menulog CEO Dan Katz.
“This proposed acquisition will allow Menulog to benefit from Just Eat’s experience and know-how, particularly in digital marketing, and enhance our customer service model to drive further growth and efficiencies across the business.”
The Just Eat acquisition of Menulog needs to be approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) before the sale can be completed.
Global trends in restaurants need delivery logistics
Just Eat had its start in Denmark already operates in 13 countries worldwide and according to CEO David Buttress has a focus on expanding globally.
Menulog and Just Eat are amongst many different online takeaway delivery services taking advantage of the growing use of smart phones and their apps. They compete against companies such as Germany’s Foodpanda which has a presence in more than 40 countries and works with 35 000 restaurants.
Other players looking at entering the space include the personal transport business Uber which in late 2014 lunched a trial of Úber Fresh’ which aims to deliver food within 10-minutes.