What's going on?

In a tale of two global food companies, takeout delivery platform Just Eat served investors up satisfying numbers on Wednesday � while subscription meal-kit provider HelloFresh�s stock fell 4% on an unpalatable forecast.

What does this mean?

Just Eat delivered solid 2018 results: it grew sales by 43% and made a tidy, rising profit. But the company, which has British headquarters and operations in 13 countries, plans to accelerate investment in its own delivery service ��as opposed to just connecting restaurants and trenchermen � which may have worried investors. Just Eat already spent $67 million on that in 2018, hampering profit growth.


HelloFresh also turned up the heat on its sales in 2018, growing them by 41%. The company simmered down previously high customer acquisition costs, which allowed it to turn a small profit of its own when ignoring one-off spending on new acquisitions and initiatives.

Why should I care?

For markets: The profit is not enough.

Investors sold HelloFresh shares on Wednesday. While it�s promising to break even in 2019, the company�s also predicting slower sales growth. And with 2018 sales totaling only $1.5 billion, some think the amount of dough HelloFresh takes should rise before it worries about actually making money � lest a big competitor like Amazon take a bite out of its business. Just Eat�s investors, who held its stock steady on Wednesday, might be concerned about the same thing: it also has Uber to worry about.

The bigger picture: Combine and conquer?

In ultra-competitive industries, one way to get bigger and more profitable is to team up and merge with a rival � like Uber�s considering doing with Deliveroo. HelloFresh�s downtrodden rival Blue Apron may also get gobbled up by a bigger brand (tweet this). Despite its 2018 profit, one of Just Eat�s investors is pushing the company to look at a similar path � and potentially save itself the trouble of building out that expensive delivery service.