Grocery and meal delivery services boomed last year, figures from food market data analyser FSIN have shown, but experts suggest fierce competition may weed out most of the speedy services.

The organisation looked at 500 food outlets and found that delivery services in particular had done well, booking a total turnover of €3.9 billion in 2021, a whopping 278.6% increase compared to 2019.

‘We are expecting the market to grow by five to 10% annually,’ FSIN director Inga Blokker told news platform Nu.nl. ‘The total market share is now at 11% of the total food market. Delivery has come into its own as a sector.’

The popularity of meal and food delivery services, including those run by supermarkets, is not only having an effect on traffic and neigbourhoods but is also reflected in the growth of the market leaders.

Ubereats and Deliveroo top the list of fastest growers, closely followed by supermarket delivery services SPAR and PLUS, meal delivery service Uitgekookt and web-based supermarket Picnic.

Speedy delivery services Gorillas, Flink, Getir and Zapp owe their growth mainly to the coronavirus crisis, grossing a total of €184.4 million on the Dutch market last year.

Supermarkets are increasingly turning to speedy services to deliver their goods. Jumbo supermarkets has contracted Gorillas while Albert Heijn and Coop are working with platforms such as Thuisbezorgd.nl and Deliveroo.

Consumer behaviour has changed over the last few years, Blokker said. ‘We are feeling more stressed as a society, and that is the main reason people are having their meals and shopping delivered. They don’t feel like queuing at a supermarket at the last minute. And because of corona, restaurants, for example, had no alternative but to deliver their meals,’ Blooker said.

However, the speedy delivery service market is a crowded one, Blokker said, and only one or two will survive.’There is simply no room for five players,’ she said.