Just Eat and HelloFresh tap into appetite for home-delivered food. Sales surge as consumers in UK and elsewhere look for convenience. Sales have surged at the UK online takeaway company Just Eat (JE.) and the Berlin-based meal-kit firm HelloFresh, underlining the popularity of home-delivery services for fresh food. Both companies tap into the desire of consumers to have freshly cooked meals delivered to their door – or preprepared ingredients for home-cooked meals – for convenience. Just Eat posted 43% growth in revenues to £779.5m in 2018 and the company made a pre-tax profit of £101.7m, compared with a £76m loss in 2017. This year it expects revenues to exceed £1bn. The London-based firm invested £51m last year, to improve efficiencies in UK delivery and expand its business overseas. The company gained more than 4 million customers in 2018, taking the total number of active customers to 26 million across Europe, Canada, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand.
Investors urge HSBC to stop bankrolling coal-burning projects. Bank urged to close loopholes allowing it to lend to projects in countries until 2023. A group of powerful HSBC Holdings (HSBA) shareholders have written to the bank’s CEO, John Flint, urging him to close a loophole in its energy policy that allows the lender to bankroll coal projects in certain emerging markets. Investment management firms Schroders, EdenTree and stewardship provider Hermes EOS have also called on HSBC to impose a ban on corporate loans, underwriting and advisory services to bank clients that are highly dependent on coal. The letter, which was coordinated by campaign group ShareAction, stresses that HSBC must adopt a “clear, timebound plan” to phase out its existing exposure to the dirty fuel. HSBC was commended by activist groups including Greenpeace last year after releasing an energy policy that aimed to phase out lending for new coal-fired power plants in high income countries and cut its commitment to oil sands “over time”. But that policy also left a loophole that allows the bank to finance new coal-powered plants in three countries – Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia – until 2023.
