Just Eat poised to enter FTSE 100 as takeaway site is now worth MORE than Sainsbury’s

Just Eat is a delivery service for takeaways

Just Eat poised to enter FTSE 100 as takeaway site is now worth MORE than Sainsbury’s

ONLINE food order and delivery intermediary Just Eat is on course to enter the FTSE 100 after its stock market value rose higher than that of supermarket Sainsbury’s.

The takeaway website has soared since making its stock market debut in 2014 and is now worth approximately £5.6billion after swallowing ambitious rivals Hungryhouse.

The news comes hot on the heels of similar "app" services exceeding the value of traditional bricks-and-mortar business that have dominated British life for generations.

For example, Uber valued at approximately $70bn is worth more than US car giant Ford, valued at $60 billion.

Music streaming service Spotify is now worth a cool $8.4bn which puts its value as exceeding the revenue of the entire American music industry.

Kelly Brook at the Just Eat Find Your Flavour event

While the Netflix streaming service is valued at $11bn according to a study by Morgan Stanley analysts, making it more valuable than Hollywood studio Time Warner.

The trend is repeating itself on the British high-street with some of the lowest placed firms on the FTSE 100 being major British high-street names like Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Marks & Spencer.

Just Eat looks set to join the elite group of Britain's 100 most valuable companies when the quarterly review is published on Wednesday.

The rise of firms like Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber EATS comes on the back of a British home delivery boom as an increasing number of people order in food rather than buy and cook their own.

According to a recent report, UK spending on takeaways reached £9.9bn in 2016, a 34 per cent increase on 2009.

Britain's oven-dodging trend is expected to continue, with the takeaway economy tipped to be worth £11.2bn in 2021.

But Cancer Research UK has warned of the risks of weight gain linked to the consumption of fast food and ready meals, which tend to have a high calorie content and higher levels of fat and sugar.

Alison Cox, Cancer Research UK’s director of prevention warned that “grab and go” foods are helping propel Britain to an epidemic of larger waistlines.

Mrs Cox told the Guardian in March: “The whole food industry needs to step up and commit to working with government to cut the amount of fat and sugar in our food. This would make it that bit easier for all of us to become healthier and reduce our cancer risks,” she said. -»