Marks & Spencer and Deliveroo Join Hands for Delivery of Essentials Amid the Coronavirus Lockdown

Amid the Coronavirus chaos and the situation of lockdown, Deliveroo, the food delivery company has partnered with Marks & Spencer along with BP petrol stations to deliver around 60 items from 120 M&S (FTSE 100 listed) franchised stores on BP forecourts within half an hour. The customers can order through Deliveroo app and get the items delivered free of charge. The move is aimed at helping communities and families amid the pandemic.

In addition, Deliveroo also launched its “Essentials by Deliveroo” service to supply essentials such as tinned vegetables, food staples and household items to offer convenience to the needy and self-isolators who are staying at home to observe social distancing amid the coronavirus crisis. The essential products include cereals, sweets, biscuits, pasta, tinned and canned goods, soft drinks and juices.

Deliveroo has already gone live with its services in England (Cambridge). In the coming two weeks, the company plans to go live in Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Brighton and London. In addition, the company has plans to roll out similar services in France, Spain, UAE and Australia.

The Covid-19 or the novel Coronavirus has wreaked havoc on the entire world with more than 330,000 people infected and more than 14,500 deaths recorded as on 24^th March 2020 as per World Health Organisation (WHO). The cure has not been found yet. Though the countries are working hard to develop a vaccination to counter this novel Coronavirus, as of now, prevention is the only cure. People across the world are living in fear with the old aged people more vulnerable to this virus. In the last few weeks, the masses have panicked and thronged the aisle of supermarkets indulging in panic buying of the essentials, resulting in empty shelves. Even though the government has repeatedly been telling the people not to panic as the supply of the essentials would be maintained and everyone will have access to their requirements.

Founded in the UK, Deliveroo pioneers in the British-born technology across the globe. The company uses the predictive technology that analyses the location of restaurants, riders and customers and identifies the most efficient way of distributing food parcels. The company calls it “Frank” algorithm.

To further enhance the delivery experience, the company deploys Machine learning to factor meal preparation time in streamlining delivery operations. With this efficient delivery model, customers get their food even faster as delivery time is reduced by 20 per cent, which translates into more rides, more deliveries, which means more sales for restaurants.

Deliveroo aims to bring the best food from local restaurants directly to people’s homes. Customers can track their orders on their phones and get food in less than 30 minutes as the company offers fast, reliable and transparent delivery network. The company witnessed a huge surge in revenue by 650 per cent year on year. The company claims that its partner restaurants saw an increase of up to 30 per cent in revenue and have created several jobs in the restaurant sector.

There is another thing which makes Deliveroo different from other conventional food delivery partners. The company has a platform known as Editions, which identifies the demand of cuisines people would like to have but are not available on menu; hence restaurants can invest in catering to the demand of their customers with assistance from Deliveroo. The company can help set up kitchens for restaurants in less than three months’ time without caring about the upfront costs.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, has urged its people to stay safe and stay indoors. The British Prime Minister has asked the public to cooperate in the interest of the nation and observe self-isolation. The disease spreads from human to human as they become an agent for the virus to travel further. Hence the British Prime minister has urged the people to observe social distancing very sincerely. Even the people who lost their jobs due to this pandemic will be provided with some compensation.

With Italy being the worst hit after China, the Prime Minister said that the United Kingdom is only a couple of weeks behind Italy and was determined to put up a fight against the global pandemic. This move by the British government came just after it has asked the cafes, pubs, gyms, entertainment squares and restaurants to shut shops. Most of the food retailers and restaurants were only delivering have now completely shut down operations in order to ensure the safety and well-being of their employees and customers.

Marks & Spencer and it’s first-ever partnership with food delivery chain

With the Deliveroo’s partnership with Marks & Spencer, the upmarket grocer is for the first time on food delivery app, delivering a selected range of around 60 household essentials, including ready meals as well as milk and bread. Delivery will be through BP stores and free as the country is into lockdown.

Marks and Spencer Group Plc (LON:MKS) a well-known supplier of clothing, accessories, beauty care, footwear, home furnishings as well as food products through a wide network of retail stores as well as online channels. It was incorporated in the year 1884 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. The company trades at the London Stock Exchange and is the constituent of the FTSE 100 index. The company’s business operations are spread across over 50 countries, having a customer base of around 30 million-plus users and established stores nearing 1,500.

The company has an annual dividend yield of 12 per cent. The company has given a negative price return of 61.14 in the last one year. In the last three months, company has given a negative price return of 53.89 per cent, which remained weak in comparison to the overall sector performance.

(Source: Thomson Reuters, Comparative Stock price chart of MKS v/s FTSE 100)

On 25th March 2020, at the time of writing (before market close, GMT 08:20 AM), Marks & Spencer Group Plc’s shares were trading at GBX 100.25, up by 0.57 per cent against its previous day closing price. Stock's 52 weeks High and Low is GBX 278.03 /GBX 73.90. At the time of writing, the share was trading 35.66% higher than its 52-week low and 63.94% lower than its 52w High. The beta of the company stood at 1.42, which meant that in comparison with the benchmark index the stock was higher in volatility. The total market capitalisation of the company was recorded at £1,943.82 million.

All the businesses are doing their bit for the society and joining hands with the British government in need of this unprecedented crisis. This gesture of Deliveroo and Marks & Spencer would give a ray of hope and positivity to the needy and the vulnerable people in the society in these turbulent times. There are other companies too coming forward to help the masses in distress; it was recently reported that British brewery, BrewDog has initiated making hand sanitisers at its distillery and would distribute them to the needy for free amid shortages caused by the coronavirus crisis. Also, Europe’s largest supplier of hospital-grade equipment, Ineos would be setting up a factory in less than two weeks to manufacture 1,000,000 bottles of hand sanitizers per month.