Melvina Sarfati El Grably: "The number of restaurants using Deliveroo in France nearly doubled over 2020"

App-based delivery services such as yours have enjoyed impressive growth since the pandemic began. How would you assess the past couple of years?
Melvina Sarfati El Grably. The take-out and grocery delivery market is indeed going through a period of strong and sustained growth. However, this pre-dates the onset of the pandemic, as the market is very young and dynamic.

More and more restaurants are harnessing the potential of digital sales and home delivery to grow their business. Covid accelerated the trend, but it was one that had already taken root.

When businesses were able to reopen in the summer of 2020 following the lockdowns, those restaurants that began working with us as a way to reach customers while their brick-and-mortar restaurants were shuttered continued to use the platform.

In concrete terms, the number of restaurants using Deliveroo in France went from 12,000 at the start of 2020 to 20,000 by the year’s end. 

Deliveroo has become a trusted ally of supermarkets too, businesses that were not subject to lockdowns. How do you view the arrangements Deliveroo has with the likes of Sainsbury’s in the UK and Carrefour in France?
Before Covid, we launched our shopping delivery service, which promised to deliver groceries within 30 minutes. This was an important strategic development for the company and something that customers were clamoring for us to do.

Partnering with major supermarkets was an important strategic development for Deliveroo

In France, we work with the various brands in the Casino family, such as Franprix and Monoprix, and carried out a trial run with [frozen food store] Picard in the greater Paris region. Deliveroo now also offers wine stores, bakeries, and fruit and veg merchants on its platform too. 

What specifically do you hope to get out of the Carrefour partnership, announced in 2021?
This partnership is consistent with our desire to expand the range of products we can offer the customer. Thanks to this arrangement, Deliveroo can offer the public a vast range of their favorite Carrefour products, available to order from the comfort of their own home.

This partnership is applicable not only to France but a number of other major European markets too, such as Italy, Spain and Belgium. 

Deliveroo made its stock market debut in 2021. Will this status alter the company’s strategy going forward?
Deliveroo will stay true to its DNA and vision, which is to become the delivery company of reference in the gourmet food and grocery sector. Our avenues of development, such as Signatures [which includes table service and pick up options, in addition to delivery] and Deliveroo Plus [a monthly subscription service for delivery services] also include our original concept Editions, which centers on kitchen sharing, and operates exclusively for the home delivery market.

Listing on the stock-exchange was not an end in itself, but another step in our development which will provide us with the means to achieve our ambitions, respond to the needs of our partners and give customers more choice.