| Founded | 2001 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
| Area served | Denmark UK The Netherlands Ireland Sweden Belgium Canada Norway Spain India Switzerland |
| Key people | Klaus Nyengaard (Chairman & CEO) |
| Employees | 350 (2011) |
| Website | Just-Eat.com |
Just-Eat is a UK headquartered service for ordering takeaway food online. UK, Denmark, Canada, Ireland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Spain, India, Switzerland and Italy. As of 4 September 2011, Just-Eat has 15 867 restaurants across its worldwide network, with 8842 in the UK.[1] Its parent company is Just-Eat Group Holdings Limited.
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Founded in 2000 in Denmark,[2] the original concept was first invented and developed by two separate groups simultaneously; Just-Eat lead by Christian Frismodt and FoodZoom lead by Jesper Buch.[3] Upon discovering they were working on the same idea, and due to Denmark having a fairly small consumer base due to its size, the two companies merged, adopting FoodZoom’s ordering process whilst maintaining Just-Eat’s name and logo.
The site first launched on 1 August 2001 and by mid 2002 the company was processing 200 orders a day over 100 postcodes maintained by a team of 4. By the start of 2004 Just-Eat broke even for the first time and had over 500 restaurants on the website and a much larger team.
With Just-Eat a proven and successful enterprise in Denmark the team began to expand the concept to other countries. In 2005 a Just-Eat team was set up in London, UK, headed by Sales Director David Buttress (UK MD as of 2008). Launching in March 2006 the team quickly became the market leader; the concept was so successful in fact that currently the UK Just-Eat site had the largest number of restaurants and the highest order numbers worldwide of Just-Eat websites. Due to its market dominance and success Just-Eat’s global Headquarters was moved to London in 2008,[4] whilst current CEO Jesper Buch stepped down and Klaus Nyengaard[5] was appointed the new CEO to help accelerate growth and internationalisation of the company. In July 2009 Just-Eat Holding Limited raised £10.5 million from their Series A investment round,[6] allowing them to further expand. Alongside Denmark, UK, Netherlands and Ireland, Just-Eat also began serving customers in Belgium, Canada, Norway, Spain and, as of March 2011, India.[7]
2001: Denmark
March 2006: UK
August 2007: Netherlands
May 2008: Ireland
March 2009: Belgium
August 2009: Canada
December 2009: Norway
October 2010: Spain
March 2011: India
April 2011: Switzerland
In July 2009 Just-Eat received their first Series A investment funding. Index Ventures (investors in Skype, LastFm, Glasses Direct and Lovefilm) and Venrex Capital invested £10.5 million[6] into Just-Eat Holdings Ltd. The new investment capital enabled Just-Eat to increase their expansion into other markets and further develop the business.
In March 2011 a second round of investment saw two leading US venture capitalists, Greylock Partners and Redpoint Ventures invest £30 million.[8] Greylock Partners have previously invested in Facebook, LinkedIn and Wonga.
From 2010 Just-Eat have been in partnership with Virgin Media and their “Big Movie Weekend” events. This partnership included providing Virgin Media customers with discount codes if they purchased a film from Virgin’s “on-demand” service on particular weekends.[9]
The original Just-Eat logo was designed in 2000 by Christian Frismodt and his partners.[10] The font and colour scheme was heavily influenced by Indian culture in an attempt to connect the Just-Eat brand with Indian takeaway cuisine; this was to help reinforce the start-up brands concept:
Toward the end of 2008 the logo was redesigned. The company was concerned the old logo was not modern enough and the Indian heritage aspect limited the brand’s appeal. The new design maintained the colours but used a new font that did not give the impression of particular cuisine types as well as including the Just-Eat slogan:
Whilst the new logo was seen as a big improvement over the original, Just-Eat still felt the logo was not aligned with their ultimate objective “to build a global, much loved 21st century consumer brand”(REF). In January 2011 the new logo was launched, removing the slogan box and yellow. The white and red colour scheme and the new font created a more definitive brand logo that was more easily recognisable. The mouse arrow in the centre of the ‘A’ was included to visually promote the idea that Just-Eat is an online business, something that the previous logos struggled to inform customers of:
In late 2009 Just-Eat UK began their first television marketing campaign. The adverts were developed by creative agency Hooper Galton[11] and animated by animation team Rebel Rebel.[12] The adverts starred Just-Eat’s mascots ‘Belly’ and ‘Brain’ and were narrated by ‘The Wombles’ narrator Bernard Cribbins.[13]
The first two adverts entitled “Attention Please”[14] and “Down and Up”[15] and ran throughout 2010.
At the start of 2011 a new TV marketing campaign began and two new adverts were created, “Listen and Learn” [16] and “Boxing Clever”[17] that will run throughout 2011.
What differentiates Just-Eat from many other online takeaway ordering services is the JCT (JustConnect) technology.[18]
Whilst FoodZoom were developing the concept of ordering takeaway online they realised that contacting the delivery restaurant via phone with the order after the customer had placed it online was counter-productive and counter-intuitive to the benefits of online ordering. Therefore the JCT technology was created. A JCT box is provided to each delivery restaurant, a 2-way till receipt/order machine. When a customer places an order on the Just-Eat website it is sent to the restaurant’s JCT box upon where it will beep to announce that an order is waiting approval. Restaurant staff are then able to accept or reject the order. If they accept it then a confirmation message is sent to the customer and the order is printed out of the JCT till receipt, providing the customer with immediate feedback and freeing the restaurant from having to answer the phone.
Just-Eat is an online takeaway ordering service, the website enables users to enter their postcode and search through a list of delivery restaurants that can deliver to that postcode catchment area. Customers can view the restaurant’s menu, add items to an order basket and pay for their order via debit/credit card online or cash when the delivery arrives. A review system and ratings aggregator provides customers with the ability to leave positive/negative reviews for individual restaurants and read other customer reviews.
Just-Eat provides delivery restaurants with an additional source of revenue as well as helping increase their customer base and revenue. On average restaurants can benefit from a 15-25% increase in profits due to the extra orders obtained from new customers finding the restaurant via Just-Eat.
Due to Just-Eats extensive marketing campaigns, independent takeaways are able to benefit from the large scale marketing including TV, PPC and billboard ads that would not otherwise be affordable to them and thus able to compete with larger chain delivery restaurants.