Just Eat signs McDonald’s

MCDONALD’S is ramping up its home delivery service in the UK as customers order Big Macs and other meals to their door.

The fast food chain has signed a deal with Just eat to deliver meals to homes across the UK and Ireland.

McDonald’s already uses Uber eats but has signed up Just eat as well to boost its delivery business, with the service to launch this year.

In october, the US giant revealed that one in ten orders it takes in the UK is made through Uber eats. The announcement came as Just eat, which is in the process of merging with Dutch rival Takeaway, said its profits for 2019 were expected to be about £200m.

That compares to £174m the previous year and is at the top end of a £185m-£205m range the firm previously gave investors.

Just eat said that this was after annual sales came to around £ 1bn, compared to £779.5m last year.

The company’s share price rose 1.9pc, or 16.6p, to 872.2p after the announcement, which is the first trading update since

Takeaway won a bidding war for Just eat.

That deal is being probed by the competition regulator.

analysts at Jefferies said the latest figures showed the company still had ‘massive tactical leverage’ compared to smaller rivals Deliveroo and Uber eats.

‘It’s now over to Takeaway’s management to wake this sleeping giant,’ they added.

Just eat has also recently signed deals with Greggs, Kfc and Burger King, after previously focusing on independent takeaway operators.