Delivery business in Serbia won't be the same: "Why we bought Donesi, what it means for customers"

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The Serbian market for food delivered via mobile apps is worth about 10.8 million euros a month. According to the latest available data, there are about 356,000 users of food delivery applications in Serbia, and they order food on average 2.7 times a month, worth on average about 1,300 dinars per order.

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A huge acquisition has just taken place - the takeover of the Donesi brand by the Glovo company.

Namely, the Spanish company for multi-category deliveries, Glovo, announced on Wednesday that it will take over the Donesi brand in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as part of a series of individual acquisitions by the Delivery Hero group in the region of Central and Eastern Europe.

According to the announcement, Glovo will also take over from Delivery, one of the world's leading delivery platforms, the Foodpanda brand in Romania and Bulgaria, as well as the Pauza brand in Croatia.

The total value of the acquisitions is 170 million euros.

We checked what that means for the Serbian market and for customers.

Will our delivery change?

- This agreement will help us strengthen our presence in the market where we are already very strong. At the same time, we will focus on offering customers the best delivery experience, along with access to anything in their city - Glovo representatives told Telegraf Biznis.

As they told our portal, new users will benefit from Glovo's expertise and knowledge of the market, but also the company's global experience, a very effective network of partnerships they have already established and continue to develop with this transaction, as well as a wide range of products and services they offer.

- We are delighted by the fact that we will bring experience and expertise to the users of the Donesi platform, and we work closely with the team and partners to make the transition as smooth as possible. Finally, we believe that this transaction will bring added value to all our customers and business partners, as well as the on-demand delivery sector in Serbia - said Victor Racariu, Glovo's General Manager for Central and Eastern Europe.

Transactions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia are expected to be completed in the next few weeks, once all the necessary conditions have been met and regulatory approvals have been obtained. The acquisition in Romania will be completed after approval from competition authorities.

As we have been told earlier by the company, fast food is what is most often ordered in Serbia, such as pizzas, burgers, and pasta, whose preparation doesn't take much time.

Food is ordered more by women than men. Data from seven cities in Serbia where Glovo operates shows that customers are loyal to local specialties, and like ordering those. This habit is different compared to users of the app in Western European countries, where various international chains, such as Burger King and Papa Joe’s, dominate these markets.

Food delivery is a business that is developing more and more, but there are still challenges that are being solved on the fly. Some of those are logistics and the number of delivery personnel.

(V.B.)