A major new study commissioned by Deliveroo reveals the critical role that delivery services had on the UK restaurant sector at the height of the pandemic earlier this year.
As the country faces further restrictions on the hospitality sector, the report underlines why services such as Deliveroo’s will be important for the sector to maintain some trading activity, to protect jobs and prevent mass closures
The new report by Capital Economics, ‘The Value of Delivery Services’, surveyed Deliveroo’s restaurant partners and found that the ability to provide delivery services from platforms, such as Deliveroo, protected around 100,000 jobs in Deliveroo’s partner restaurants from being lost or furloughed over the period between April and June.
The report also finds that delivery services supported turnover of £1 billion for Deliveroo’s restaurant partners during this period.
The survey shows that Deliveroo’s partners used the furlough scheme at a lower rate than the hospitality sector as a whole (33% versus 73% respectively), underlining the value of the trade generated by delivery services to both restaurants and to the exchequer.
On average, 32% of employees in Deliveroo’s partner restaurants said they continued to work because of delivery services, which is close to the 40 per cent that continued to work because of government schemes, again underlining the critical role of delivery in sustaining economic activity.
The Capital Economics report states: “Delivery services have helped to keep parts of the hospitality sector operating in a challenging environment and the cost to government would have been even higher without them. They have helped to keep more people at work in the hospitality sector which has been one of the hardest hit sectors from lockdown restrictions and changes in peoples’ behaviour.”
During the pandemic restaurants across the country have recognised the benefits of food delivery in helping them protect jobs and stay open. 13,000 restaurants have joined the Deliveroo platform since March - nearly 8,000 are small independent restaurants.
During 2019/20 Deliveroo generated an additional £1.9bn in revenue for the UK economy.
Globally, Deliveroo supports 90,000 jobs in the restaurant sectors in the markets in which it operates and generated over £4bn in revenue for those sectors.
Will Shu, CEO and founder of Deliveroo, said, “Deliveroo has been proud to help restaurants to operate and support jobs during this difficult period. Delivery enables restaurants to sell their amazing meals to a wider customer base than they otherwise wouldn’t be able to reach.
'Thousands of restaurants have joined our platform and customer adoption has accelerated hugely. As Deliveroo and food delivery becomes an essential service, we will continue to improve our offer to customers, for example expanding our grocery range, as well as our service to restaurants.”
Business Minister Nadhim Zahawi MP said, “Food delivery services like Deliveroo have provided a vital service for many throughout the pandemic - ensuring the public remained able to enjoy a restaurant-quality meal after work or during a quiet night in.
“It’s fantastic to hear that these services have helped protect tens of thousands of jobs at a difficult time for the hospitality sector, boosting restaurants’ turnover during lockdown and allowing many to keep operating on a takeaway basis.”