LAFAYETTE, La.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Waitr Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: WTRH) (“Waitr” or the “Company”), a leader in on-demand ordering and delivery, today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2021.
“Additionally, as previously announced, we have acquired the ‘ASAP.com’ domain name in connection with our rebranding strategy. We expect that ‘ASAP’ will serve as the foundation of our brand moving forward, as we believe it better embodies the future direction of our Company in which you can get everything ASAP”
Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2021 Highlights
- Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2021 was $38.6 million, compared to $46.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2020. Revenue in the fourth quarter of 2021 decreased approximately 11% from revenues of $43.4 million for the third quarter in 2021, a comparable percentage decrease for the fourth quarter of 2020 compared to the third quarter of 2020. For the year ended December 31, 2021, revenue was $182.2 million, compared to $204.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2020.
- Net loss for the fourth quarter of 2021 was $8.1 million, or $0.06 per share, compared to net income of $2.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, or $0.02 per share. Net loss for the fourth quarter of 2021 was $8.1 million compared to net income of $12.3 for the third quarter of 2021. Net loss for the year ended December 31, 2021 was $5.2 million, or $0.04 per share, compared to net income of $15.8 million, or $0.15 per share for the year ended December 31, 2020.
- Adjusted EBITDA1 for the fourth quarter of 2021 was $1.7 million, compared to $9.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2020. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2021 was $1.7 million, compared to $3.1 million in the third quarter of 2021. Adjusted EBITDA for the year ended December 31, 2021 was $15.6 million, compared to $43.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2020.
- As of December 31, 2021, cash on hand was $60.1 million.
- In the fourth quarter of 2021, we continued to focus our efforts on further supplementing our offerings and diversifying the Company beyond third-party food delivery as well as investing in technology and integrations in several key business areas, with the goal of positioning ourselves for long-term growth.
“Our strategy is to expand our ecosystem, which today is comprised of our restaurants, diners and independent contractor drivers, through the enhancement of our platforms and providing additional products and services. We continue to invest in integrated commerce technologies, such as Olo Dispatch and Google Food Ordering, which are important steps in pursuing our overall growth strategy,” said Carl Grimstad, Chairman and CEO of Waitr.
Additionally, Mr. Grimstad emphasized, “While 2021 presented challenges, including impacts from the ongoing pandemic and hurricanes in our core Southeast markets, we continued to focus our efforts on enhancing our platforms and providing quality service to our restaurant partners and diners. We invested in product and engineering personnel during 2021 and made additions to our technology management team during the first quarter of 2022, which should benefit us as we plan to expand our delivery verticals. We delivered over $540 million in Gross Food Sales2 for our restaurant and business partners to consumers during 2021 through over 100,000 independent contractor drivers resulting in payments to these independent contractor drivers of over $104 million.”
Through our recent acquisitions in August 2021, we now facilitate merchant and restaurant access to third parties that provide payment processing solutions. Preliminary feedback has been positive with respect to our marketing efforts and to date we have facilitated access to third-party processing services for approximately 1,900 merchants with an annualized volume3 of approximately $900 million.
Another one of our strategies is to “deliver anything”. Our goal is to deliver any product to a consumer desiring same day delivery. With respect to this deliver anything strategy, we have initiated several integrations expected to be completed by mid-2022 with other companies to deliver their products. We continue to have positive conversations with stadiums throughout the US to offer our platform to enhance their fan bases experiences throughout the venues.
On December 17, 2021, the Company announced that it had entered into a non-binding letter of intent (“LOI”) to acquire Retail Innovation Labs Inc. dba Cova (“Cova”). The parties mutually agreed on March 10, 2022 that they are no longer pursuing a business combination as contemplated in the LOI (and as announced in December 2021), but continue to discuss a potential business relationship involving facilitating Cova customers access to third parties that provide payment processing solutions. The Company believes that such an arrangement can be mutually beneficial and will allow both parties to continue to execute their respective business strategies without affecting a business combination. These discussions remain preliminary and there can be no assurance that a definitive agreement with respect to this arrangement will be entered into or consummated in the near term or at all.
“Additionally, as previously announced, we have acquired the ‘ASAP.com’ domain name in connection with our rebranding strategy. We expect that ‘ASAP’ will serve as the foundation of our brand moving forward, as we believe it better embodies the future direction of our Company in which you can get everything ASAP,” concluded Mr. Grimstad.