August 11, 2022: -Losses at British meal delivery company Deliveroo is swelling in the first quarter of 2022 while revenue growth decreased dramatically as the pandemic restrictions released and increased the cost-of-living dented demand for online takeout.

Deliveroo reports a pretax loss of £147.3 million in the initial six months, up 54% from a year ago. The losses were mainly by increasing spending on marketing and overheads.

Revenues at the company increased 12% to £1 billion. That was much slower than the firm’s revenue growth in the first half of 2021 when sales rose 82% year-on-year.

Deliveroo’s gross transaction value, which measures overall sales on the platform, grew 7% to £3.6 billion, lackluster growth checks with the previous year when GTV doubled. The company is blaming the disappointing performance on “challenging market conditions.”

Deliveroo is conferring on plans to exit the Netherlands, which would mark the latest exit from a primary European market for the company.

The firm had faced the prospect of much stricter gig economizing laws in the European Union and retreated from Spain last year and Germany in 2019.

The Netherlands represents only 1% of Deliveroo’s GTV in the first half of 2022, Deliveroo said.

Deliveroo reiterated its guidance for the whole-year sales increase. In the previous month, the company revised its target for 2022 GTV growth to 4% to 12%, down from a previous forecast of between 15% and 25%.

On Wednesday, the shares of Deliveroo increased 3% following its results.