Andrea Felsted, Columnist

Just Eat CEO Quits Without Delivering the Takeaway

Plumb is leaving before his plan to build an army of delivery drivers shows signs of paying off.

January 21, 2019 at 12:26 PM UTC

Andrea Felsted is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering consumer goods and the retail industry. Previously, she was a reporter for the Financial Times.

Margin threat.
Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

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Peter Plumb is stepping down as CEO of takeaway app Just Eat Plc before he could deliver the one dish investors actually wanted: results from his big change in strategy.

It’s less than 10 months since Plumb announced that Just Eat would build up its own army of couriers – rather than leaving restaurants to make deliveries. His argument was that to win business from outlets unwilling to meet the cost of delivery drivers, Just Eat would need to provide them itself. That pivot required heavy investment and spooked shareholders; the stock has since fallen by almost a quarter.