Grubhub Sale Boosts Just Eat Takeaway's H1 Results
DoorDash adds CA & OH grocers, Pizza Hut wedded to new promo, congestion pricing clears logistics logjam
We’ve got more financial results, coming in hot! Plus, more evidence on the merits of congestion pricing, a gaggle of new grocers and an interesting pizza promo. Read on!
This week we have extra industry coverage, thanks to our partners at SWITCH.
Today:
DoorDash Adds Supermarkets in West & Midwest
Pizza Hut’s Grooming New Customers
Chart Time | Congestion Pricing Works!
Just Eat Takeaway Wobbles Forward in H1
3PD | DoorDash Adds West Coast & Midwest Grocers
The grocery wars continue! This morning, DoorDash unveiled a new slate of regional grocers, now available on its delivery platform. Shoppers can now fill their pantries from:
Bi-Rite Market: A Bay Area institution with three locations in San Francisco and a famous ice cream counter as well.
Dave’s Markets: With twelve locations in Greater Cleveland.
Dorothy Lane Market: A gourmet, family-owned supermarket in Southwest Ohio, sporting six storefronts.
Lucky’s Markets: With four locations in Ohio. (Not to be confused with Northern California’s Save Mart-owned Lucky Market.)
Lunardi’s Markets: An Italian grocer with eight locations across San Jose and the suburban East Bay.
Superior Grocers: a 74-unit Hispanic grocer with stores in Southern California, the Central Valley and Nevada.
The Big Picture: DoorDash has been rolling out new regional grocers for quite some time now, but this new release really doubles down on both California and Ohio. Last month the 3PD added four additional grocery chains, while Uber Eats fired back with six new partners a few days later.
PARTNER | Urban Fleets Are Getting an AI Teammate — Join for Early Access
SWITCH is launching its new Agentic AI platform – designed to optimize every layer of fleet operations, from demand forecasting to task automation. This is more than just analytics: it’s an intelligent agent that integrates directly into your tools, simulaing outcomes and acting on real-time data.
Now in Early Access, the program is free and already working with operators worldwide – from those managing a few dozen large vehicles to others running hundreds of thousands of micromobility units. Whether you’re in shared mobility, last-mile delivery, or car rental, if you manage urban fleets, this is your chance to help shape the future of AI for urban fleets.
✅ White-glove onboarding
✅ Influence the product roadmap
✅ Early access to new capabilities
MARKETING | Pizza Hut Proposes A Novel Wedding Cake
From your white dress to the… red hut? Pizza Hut just revealed a novel marketing campaign, aiming to get newlyweds to say “I dough” to The After Pizza Cake sweepstakes. Available in LA, Atlanta and NYC, the five-foot-tall, three-tiered assortment of pizzas from the new Hut Lover’s line of ‘zas is surrounded by floral-esque pepperonis, tomatoes and flowers. Besides offering a unique wedding gift, Pizza Hut is also giving away trips to Hawaii, as a way to drum up attention that folks can now get Spicy Hawaiian Lover's, Meat Lover's, Pepperoni Lover's, and Veggie Lover's delivered for $12.99. Oh, and supposedly studies show that 90% of couples surveyed love the idea of a late-night snack at their wedding.
The Big Picture: You know we love a good marketing stunt around these parts, and fortunately, so does the Hut. In fact, the American arm of the globe-spanning pie slinger pales in comparison to some of its international promos. In Taiwan, there are wacky LTOs for things like the Ghost Rice Noodle Roll and Phoenix Claw Pizza or a spiderweb and eyeball-themed pie, all serving as clever ways to drive new user to the company’s app and loyalty program. Yum! Brands-owned Pizza Hut reports its quarterly earnings on August 5th.
CHART TIME | Congestion Pricing De-Clogs NYC Cargo
Congestion pricing has been effect in New York City for over half a year now, charging motorists variable tolls for entering Manhattan south of Central Park. Now with ever more data collected, it’s clear the program is having beneficial effects, not just for commuters but for cargo as well. Commercial vehicles are moving demonstrably faster, while more cargo has been moved onto smaller, more urban-appropriate vehicles as well.
FINANCE | Just Eat Ekes Out €160 million in Net Cash in H1 ‘25
Just Eat Takeaway.com just posted its financial results for the first half of the year, showing that its financial picture is slooowly improving. GTV, on a constant currency basis, of its group of brands, excluding “Rest of World” notched 2% growth… but boy is that a sentence with a lot of disclaimers. Net cash generated by operating activities increased to €160 million in H1 2025 from €96 million the year prior. Net result from continuing operations improved to a loss of €90 million in H1 2025 from a loss of €203 million in H1 ‘24. The company expects its full year results to come in at the lower end of its earlier guidance range.
The Big Picture: JET squeaked out €583 million in profit, but €637M of that came from the sale of Grubhub, a trick it can’t exactly repeat every year. The company’s business in Europe and UK / Ireland remains stable, but growth is elusive. And that darn “rest of world,” you know, places like Canada, Israel and Australia remain a blackhole for the company, even though those economies are generally faster growing. No wonder the company threw in the towel and is selling itself to Prosus. That’s actually taking a bit longer than initially anticipated, with the two extending the acceptance period for the offer until October 1st.
A Few Good Links
DoorDash hires ex-Spotify ad chief; the music streamer trash talks him on the way out. Swift Navigation raises $50M for more accurate positioning. Flexport sells Convoy assets to DAT. Saudi foodtecher Calo raises $64M with eye on ‘27 IPO. Meituan nabs Olympian ping-pong star Sun Yingsha as Chinese deliverers intensify price wars. Uber worries new NYC courier rules single out immigrant workers; recall that Mayor Adams made a sweetheart deal with the Trump Administration… DOJ drops charges against Fat Brands head Andy Wiederhorn, another big Trump donor. McD’s goes big on chicken, while Yum! Brands goes crazy for bevvies. DC City Council undoes voter initiative that killed off sub-minimum wage for tipped workers. Cheesecake Factory net income hits $54.8M. Werner revenue climbs. Starbucks’ U.S. same-store sales dropped 2%, its longest sales slump in 15+ years. Wingstop posts adjusted net income of $27.9 million. EPA looks to undo 2009 emissions rule. BP and Wex launch new fleet card. Visa brings fleet card tech to Google Pay. UPS eyes reuniting with USPS for Ground Saver. Walmart inks deal with MLS. Albertsons asks Kroger to release details on CEO’s ethics lapse. Forever 21 — remember them? — jumps in app store rankings. AIR raises $23M for eVTOLs. ZTO Express announces repurchase right notification. Côte Brasserie partners with Deliveroo. Scream Truck digitizes the ice cream truck experience. iFood invests R$1.5 million in delivery driver training. Douyin merges supermarket and q-commerce arms.
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