AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The CEO of Europe’s largest restaurant order and delivery company Just Eat Takeaway.com on Wednesday brushed aside competition from rival Uber Eats after it said it would launch in Germany, one of Takeaway’s biggest markets.
“We welcome competition,” Jitse Groen said on Twitter in response to a question asking whether Uber’s entrance would hurt Takeway or could trigger a price war. “We are (already) dirt cheap in Germany,” the executive said.
Shares in Takeaway were down 4.6% to 87.73 euros following the Uber news.
In an interview with the Financial Times published earlier on Wednesday, an Uber Eats executive said that Takeaway’s commissions were “extraordinarily high”.
“Europe in particular has been a bright spot (for Uber Eats), both in terms of some of the growth we’ve seen but also, frankly, in terms of the strengthening of our market position” in Britain and Spain, the paper quoted Pierre-Dimitri Gore Coty, senior vice president of delivery, as saying.
Contacted by Reuters, Uber Eats had no immediate comment.
Last week Takeaway reported a 79% increase in first quarter orders, citing strength in Britain, where it competes with Uber Eats and Deliveroo.
(Reporting by Toby Sterling)
