Delivery Hero can almost double its sales

The DAX-listed company now generates sales of almost three billion euros, but continues to make losses.

Delivery Hero was able to increase its turnover by 95% last year and now stands at 2.8 billion euros. Orders have also apparently doubled: in 2020, customers placed a total of 1.3 billion orders with the food delivery company. "We had a strong fourth quarter in a year that was exceptional in many ways," said CEO Niklas Östberg in a company statement. The pandemic was particularly helpful for Delivery Hero. As restaurants are closed, more people are ordering online.

The company will not publish its final figures for the financial year until April. It will then also be clear whether Delivery Hero is still reporting high losses. The preliminary EBITDA margin (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) is minus 16 percent. According to Delivery Hero, the reason for the red figures is the Berlin-based company's high level of investment. At the beginning of the year, it was announced that Delivery Hero intends to take over its South Korean competitor Woowa. This takeover alone is said to have cost 3.6 billion euros.

Delivery Hero was founded in Berlin in 2011 and currently employs around 25,000 people, 1,300 of whom work in the German capital. The food delivery company is active in more than 40 countries, mainly in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Delivery Hero sold its German business to a Dutch competitor back in 2018. Delivery Hero has been listed on the DAX, Germany's leading index, since August last year.