Just Eat takeaway.com NV is the latest company to seek a slice of local grocery spending in supermarkets. The company is forging a partnership with Asda Group to deliver its groceries to British consumers.
As per Bloomberg News, the Amsterdam-based company into restaurant delivery will launch a trial run with the U.K based grocers, Asda Group, in quarter 1 of 2022.
Just Eat customers can order from five stores of Asda in the trial run. It is expected that the choice will grow over the year, according to a person who is familiar with the matter but declining to identify as the information is not public yet.
Since 2019, Just Eat has been offering hot pizza to Asda Group, but this new rollout is the company’s first significant step in grocery delivery.
Though a representative from Asda confirmed this partnership, Just Eat did not comment immediately on the matter.
Investors have been pressuring Just Eat to reverse its lagging share price. Just Eat also owns Grubhub, one of the biggest food delivery apps in New York. It has earlier said they did not have enough funds for grocery delivery. CEO Jitse Groen, however, said in August this year that he had revised his thinking on the issue, and Just Eat is ready to invest in the grocery delivery business.
Just Eat will face competitors in the U.K. market like Deliveroo Plc and Uber Technologies Inc. They have been building a fast delivery service system in grocery and offering online orders from supermarkets to their customers.
Asda group is run by TDR Capital and Issa brothers of a Britain-led consortium after Walmart relinquished control over it earlier in 2021.
Asda has faced the most challenges among the top four grocers of Britain, with hardly any presence as a value retailer or inconvenience store space. It has been susceptible to threats from Lidl and Aldi, the German discounters who are price competitive.
Wm Morrison Supermarkets, Tesco Plc, and J Sainsbury Plc are also making inroads in the growing delivery market in the grocery sector. Tesco, the biggest grocer in Britain, has announced a tie-up with Gorillas while Sainsbury is in a working partnership with Uber Eats and Deliveroo.
