What fresh hell . . .
[September 26 in the year of our Lord 2024]
Just Eat Takeaway.com is partnering with Lovehoney Group, one of the world’s leading companies in the sexual wellness industry, to offer sexual wellbeing products to consumers as part of the company’s move into self-care. The collaboration will kick off in the United Kingdom (Just Eat), Austria (Lieferando) and Denmark (Just Eat) through different local retailers in each market.
Through this partnership, Lovehoney Group will offer a wide variety of top-selling products, including the popular Womanizer, We-Vibe, ROMP and Fifty Shades of Grey ranges, delivering toys, lubricants, accessories and gifts to millions of consumers across multiple European markets . . .
Ladened with snacks, stimulants and, as of Thursday, other types of stimulants, the food delivery sector is “now progressing up the Slope of Enlightenment” on the Gartner hype cycle, according to Morgan Stanley — though a nasty crash at the Trough of Disillusionment probably cost the courier their tip.
Fresh from a week of marketing in Frankfurt and the US, Morgan Stanley analysts Luke Holbrook, Ed Young and Constantin P Kollmann note the following (with their own emphasis):
Actively engaged [investors] are becoming notably optimistic on the outlook into 2025 – as are we – similarly citing progress made by our companies (Delivery Hero, Just Eat Takeaway and Deliveroo) in paving the way to sustainable free cash flow generation (greater consolidation; cost management; optimised fee structures; management changes have all assisted in this regard). However, those less engaged investors seem to be generally still only willing to watch from the sidelines.
While there is often a tendency to ‘miss the first turn’ of the cycle (which we understand given the scars borne over the past few years), we believe that this first ‘turn’ is almost behind us. We see catalysts into Q4 for JET and Deliveroo shares and remain positive on the outlook for the sector into 2025, when we expect these stocks’ re-rating to continue, that we think is only just underway.
Following a roughly 85 per cent share price de-rating from the 2021 Covid-peak to trough levels in 2023, “more realistic expectations have emerged about the capabilities, limitations and potential use cases of food delivery platforms,” the analysts write in a note published today.
“People (investors, management teams, and the sell-side) have become more knowledgable about what food delivery companies can accomplish,” the trio add, all of which allows for “a better understanding for what enables effective implementation in different scenarios”.
Just Eat’s timely new partnership with Lovehoney may or may not be what Morgan Stanley had in mind.
Further reading:
— How to have better sex (FT)
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