LONDON (Reuters) - Food delivery platforms are helping independent and chain restaurants in London, Paris, Madrid and Warsaw serve more meals every week, boosting the sector's revenue and profit, according to a Deloitte report commissioned by Uber Eats.
Food delivery has grown rapidly across Europe, initially driven by companies such as Just Eat (L:JE) and Takeaway.com (AS:TKWY) that offered marketplaces for restaurants that had their own delivery services.
Uber Eats, a unit of the ride-hailing service (N:UBER), Britain's Deliveroo and Spain's Glovo expanded the market by supplying their own delivery to both independent and chain restaurants.
The share of restaurants that reported an overall increase in sales after joining the Uber Eats was 69% in London, 74% in Paris, 67% in Warsaw and 59% in Madrid, according to the report.
Uber Eats' European head Stephane Ficaja said the survey was commissioned to gauge the impact the company was having on the 60,000 restaurants that had joined its platform in 250 cities across Europe in little over three years.
"We were hoping to see top line and bottom line growth, that means that restaurants generate not only more revenue thanks to food delivery but also more profit," he said in an interview.
The growth was seen by small independents and big chains, which were able to compete on a level playing field on the platform, he said.
The biggest number of extra meals delivered as a result of third-party platforms was seen in London, where 606,000 servings were made by chain restaurants and 305,000 through independents weekly, resulting in a 323 million pound ($414 million) increase in annual revenue and 189 million pounds of extra profit a year, it said.
A 4.7% rise in meals served was seen in Paris, while there was a 1.5% increase across the board in Madrid and a 1.9% rise in Warsaw, the survey found.
The food delivery sector has already started to consolidate, and two Netherlands-based companies - Just Eat and Prosus (AS:PRX) - are competing to buy Britain's Just Eat.
Uber Eats, like its parent, is loss making. Its revenue increased by 64% to $645 million in the third quarter but its loss on the adjusted earnings level widened by 67% to $316 million.
"We are still in front of a big business opportunity. We still have a lot of markets where delivery is not mature where we need to invest," Ficaja said.
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