London-based food delivery marketplace Just Eat has announced the acquisition of City Pantry, an office catering marketplace as it entered the catering business. Founded in 2013 by Stuart Sunderland, City Pantry debuted to improve the catering options for employees in companies in London. The marketplace connects businesses and local caterers so that the former can get quality food delivered to their office.
Acquired for €18 million
Notably, the catering marketplace is also based in London. It has been acquired by Just Eat for £16 million (nearly €18 million). This is said to be an initial cash offering and it is claimed that there will be further remittances if City Pantry meets financial targets over a period of three years.
Heads up about City Pantry
Currently, this startup feeds over 120,000 people for over 1,000 corporate customers per month. And, it is working with several hundreds of suppliers to provide meals for business meetings and corporate events. Its offerings include regular employee meals, team meals, pop-ups bringing restaurants to events and offices, individual orders and catering for events and meetings. City Pantry is an alumnus of retail startup accelerator TrueStart.
Will leverage its presence in London
With this acquisition, Just Eat will be able to leverage City Pantry’s technology, brand and B2B experience to expand into London. Given that the UK market is valued around £10 billion a year, Just Eat will be able to make use of the marketplace business model to expand into international markets.
Third acquisition in 2019!
Earlier this year, the London food delivery giant acquired Practi and Flyt, restaurant software groups. And, the acquisition of City Pantry is its third buyout this year.
It is beneficial for Just Eat as the food delivery giant will be able to gain a strong foothold in the corporate market at a relatively low price. The acquisition has been made right at a time when Just Eat is facing extreme pressure from other food delivery giants including Deliveroo and UberEATs.
“What we eat in our personal lives has dramatically changed in the past 10 years in terms of quality and choice,” said Stuart Sunderland, founder and CEO of City Pantry. “The food revolution is now beginning to happen at work and City Pantry is at the forefront of this. We know that Just Eat shares our belief and we’ve been impressed with its vision of what we can do together.”
“Working with City Pantry to accelerate its mission to improve and modernize the workplace dining experience is a great opportunity for Just Eat. It’s the right time for us to enter the corporate market and expand our offering,” said Peter Duffy, Interim CEO of Just Eat.
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