Just Eat Takeaway.com partners with grocer Ahold in Netherlands

By Toby Sterling

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Just Eat Takeaway.com, Europe’s largest online food ordering service, said on Tuesday it will partner with supermarket operator Ahold’s flagship Dutch Albert Heijn chain to deliver groceries and convenience products.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

While a tie up between the country’s biggest food delivery service and its biggest grocer had seemed logical, Ahold also operates its own grocery delivery service, as well as e-commerce site Bol.com, which is more popular than Amazon in the Netherlands.

The companies said the partnership will focus on a smaller range of around 1,200 products, with a focus on fresh produce and convenience products — items that usually have higher margins.

“Fast grocery” services such as Gorillas, Flink and Getir saw blistering growth in the Netherlands during the coronavirus pandemic.

However in recent months, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and other major cities have imposed bans on new distribution centres, the “dark stores” they rely on, in residential areas.

Ahold and Takeaway said they would target a 30 minute delivery time for orders, slightly longer than the 10 or 15 minutes promised by some of the fast grocery startups.

Takeaway shares, which have lost two-thirds of their value since October 2020, were trading flat at 30.50 euros at 0709 GMT.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling, editing by Ed Osmond, Kirsten Donovan)