Grubhub promotes CFO Adam DeWitt to CEO

Dive Brief:

Following the Tuesday closure of Just Eat Takeaway.com's acquisition of Grubhub, Matt Maloney, Grubhub founder and CEO, has become a member of JET Management Board while Grubhub President and CFO Adam DeWitt has been promoted to CEO, according to a press release.
Maloney will be one of four executives running the global business, with a specific focus on North America, and will be in charge of global integration and coordination. DeWitt will lead operations across the U.S. business.
JET's acquisition of Grubhub, which was valued at $7.3 billion, created a combined company with revenues of $4.7 billion, according to Restaurant Business.

Dive Insight:

Grubhub's management changes won't likely have a dramatic impact on its strategic direction, particularly as the CEO appointment comes from inside the company. DeWitt has been with the company since 2011, helping the business grow from $20 million to over $2 billion in revenue, according to the press release.

DeWitt will be taking over a growing business, which boasted gross food sales of $8.7 billion in 2020, an increase of 47% compared to 2019, according to an earnings release. In the midst of the pandemic, the company’s revenue also increased by 41% during Q2 2020, and Maloney said the pandemic is "more of a permanent catalyst, putting our business on a higher sustained trajectory."

The backing of JET will allow Grubhub to have more flexibility to make strategic, long-term investments and help it differentiate and capture a share of growth in the U.S., Maloney said in the press release. That could very well mean buying smaller companies, which Grubhub has done in the past to gain market share as well as additional capabilities. It hasn’t bought any companies since 2018 when it acquired Level Up and Tapingo.

The company instead has focused on growing its marketplace network as well as its product suite, rolling out a subscription service in early 2020 and launching Grubhub Direct in May, a platform that independent restaurants can use to create customizable ordering websites.

DeWitt's biggest challenge, outside of growing market share, will be to maintain the customers and partner restaurants it gained during the pandemic, especially as the country reopens and consumers go back to dining out.