Food delivery firm Just Eat has acquired corporate catering firm City Pantry.
The firm was acquired for £16m, which will provide Just Eat access to 1,000 corporate customers, or 120,000 people in the lunchtime delivery market.
Just Eat said the market for corporate catering is an estimated £10bn a year, having grown off the back of company perks such as free lunches.
It hopes to use City Pantry’s brand and technology to provide the corporate market with access to typically pre-arranged, high-value orders.
Founded in 2014, City Pantry connects caterers and restaurants include franchises such as Leon and Bill’s, enabling staff to have food delivered directly to work for lunch, corporate events and business meetings.
“Working with City Pantry to accelerate its mission to improve and modernise the workplace dining experience is a great opportunity for Just Eat”, said Peter Duffy, Interim CEO of Just Eat.
“It’s the right time for us to enter the corporate market and expand our offering.
“City Pantry has a well-established business, fantastic expertise and an entrepreneurial spirit that matches our own.
“We look forward to bringing the company into the Just Eat family and working with them to grow in the UK and internationally in this exciting and dynamic market.”
Stuart Sunderland, founder and CEO of City Pantry commented: “What we eat in our personal lives has dramatically changed in the past 10 years in terms of quality and choice.
The food revolution is now beginning to happen at work and City Pantry is at the forefront of this. We know that Just Eat shares our belief and we’ve been impressed with its vision of what we can do together.”
Just Eat’s latest acquisition follows the agreements to buy restaurant software groups Practi and Flyt, costing £6.7 million and £22 million respectively.