Locked-down consumers across Europe ordered 57% more takeaways from the continent’s biggest delivery group in the final three months of 2020 than a year earlier. The huge leap in trade reported by Just Eat Takeaway.com was a further acceleration in growth from the 46% jump in the third quarter, as surging coronavirus cases resulted in countries across Europe reintroducing strict restrictions, keeping people at home. In the UK, delivery orders surged by almost 400% in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared with the same period of 2019, as many consumers were once again asked by the government to stay at home. Just Eat Takeaway, based in the Netherlands and one of the world’s largest online food delivery firms, said it had put “tremendous effort” into improving the Just Eat UK business. It said it had doubled its UK sales force compared with the previous year, driving increased choice of restaurants for customers. Food delivery groups have been a clear winner during the pandemic because restrictions have often prevented restaurants, pubs and cafes from serving diners on their premises. The group now expects Just Eat’s delivery orders in the UK market to overtake the total food orders of the third-largest firm. Jitse Groen, the chief executive of Just Eat Takeaway.com, said the firm’s investment programme had been successful and led to significant gains in market share in most countries. “The progress in the UK is particularly exciting: order growth of 58%, and we have increased our delivery orders nearly fivefold in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared with the same period in 2019,” he said. “In 2021, we will continue to invest in price leadership, improving our service levels and expanding our offering to restaurants and consumers.” The results come just over a year after shareholders in Just Eat approved a £6.2bn merger with the Dutch food delivery firm Takeaway.com, creating one of the largest food delivery groups in the world, serving customers in 23 countries from Europe to New Zealand. In June, Just Eat Takeaway agreed to buy the US-based app Grubhub for $7.3bn (£5.8bn) in a deal that created the world’s largest food delivery service outside China. Just Eat Takeaway said it had obtained all regulatory approvals relating to the Grubhub transaction, as well as shareholder approval, and it hoped to complete the deal in the first half of 2021. Just Eat Takeaway and Grubhub together processed 593m orders in 2019 and have more than 70 million active customers globally.