Here’s a teaser for you. On one side you have a grocer with more than 2,000 stores across Britain and nearly 200,000 staff. On the other, a food delivery business with a workforce shy of 3,000 and physical assets worth just £12m. So which is more valuable? The answer may surprise you.
Thanks to a one-third surge in its share price since January, the takeaway app Just Eat is worth more than £5.5bn. It ascent into the FTSE 100 will be confirmed this week. Sainsbury’s, by contrast, has had to get by on somewhat thin gruel; unappetising trading figures pushed its value below £5bn.
Just Eat’s rise has been remarkable. Founded in Denmark in 2001, it exploded only in the early Noughties and has planted