Being confined to barracks on a semi-permanent basis has thrown up vast stretches of empty time that would otherwise have been frittered away on what used to be known as having a life, and no doubt some worthy specimens have grabbed the opportunity to teach themselves Arabic, bake patisseries that would have impressed the great Escoffier himself, read Proust or transform the ageing corpse with online exercise classes. Alternatively, you may have dedicated yourself to flattening the whole of Netflix, pausing only to order the occasional takeaway.
Judging by the success of Deliveroo and its various rivals, the latter seems to have been a popular choice.
Despite much wailing and gnashing of teeth on the part of restaurants, which don’t like the size of the commission it takes, its riders, who have to do an awful lot of pedalling to make a living, and the civilian motorist, who knows it is only a matter of time before someone in a hurry to deliver a chicken vindaloo comes hurtling through a red light and deposits said curried delight all over the windscreen, the company has been making a killing.
Deliveroo lost £317.7m in 2019, but 2020 saw its revenues double; it achieved profitability in the second and third quarters, and the latest round of fundraising saw its valuation shoot up to $7bn as it prepares for an IPO. The company is expanding into grocery delivery and is growing its network of ghost kitchens, but faces a stiff challenge from Europe’s largest online food delivery group, Just Eat, which has very publicly declared that it’s planning to eat Deliveroo’s lunch.
Truworths: Subdued but hanging on
The year 2020 was no time to be a bricks-and-mortar retailer, and it’s hardly a surprise that Truworths has had to announce that its results for the second half are going to be a bit subdued. But when you look at the performance of retailers worldwide and analyse the body count of endless stores, many of them household names, that have closed doors for the last time, you have to start thinking that under the circumstances a bit subdued is a performance you’d take every day of the week.
The group has faced challenges both in the UK and in SA, where its local operations felt the impact of the pandemic on an economy that was wobbly enough beforehand.
The devastation caused by ongoing disruption of key sectors of the economy and ever-growing unemployment put increasing pressure on disposable income levels.
As a result, limiting the decrease in turnover to a mere 6.8% was a pretty tidy achievement.
There doesn’t seem to be much prospect of a turnaround in the short term, and all the company can do is to hang on and manage whatever is in its control.
In the UK, Office sales were down 24.6% in sterling terms, and the only good news was the strength of its online performance, with sales up from 34% of total sales in the previous year to 59%.
Its trading space shrank by 17% year on year and is expected to shed a further 21% in 2021. It notched up an impairment of £8m relating to its retail store leases, but at least it’s still in the fight.