Deliveroo doubled orders for the first three months of the year but admitted it still had work to do to convince investors about its future after a stock market float beset by concerns over its treatment of workers. The takeaway delivery company received 71m orders during the quarter, a 114% year-on-year increase, helped by coronavirus lockdowns which led to the temporary closures of restaurants and cafes in the UK and elsewhere, according to results published on Thursday. Deliveroo’s platform handled transactions worth £1.65bn during the period, a year-on-year increase of 130% as it almost doubled the number of monthly active users to 7.1 million. Growth was fastest in the UK and Ireland, but cities including Paris, Berlin, Sydney and Hong Kong accounted for nearly half of the firm’s transactions. Deliveroo acknowledged that growth was likely to decelerate as restaurants and bars reopen around the world, including reopening outdoors in England and Wales from Monday. Will Shu, Deliveroo’s founder and chief executive, said he was “mindful of the uncertain impact of the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions”. He said lockdown restrictions meant that many new restaurants had reconsidered delivery and he believed new customers who had signed up to buy groceries or takeaways online were likely to stick with the app. He said Deliveroo’s sales had picked up in markets such as Hong Kong and Dubai a few weeks after locals had been able to go out to restaurants and bars when they reopened in those markets. “While we are confident that our value proposition will continue to attract consumers, restaurants, grocers and riders throughout 2021, we are taking a prudent approach to our full-year guidance,” he said. The cautious outlook drove a near 4% fall in Deliveroo’s share price on Thursday to 260p, a third below the launch price of 390p. The latest fall came after the company’s shares slumped by 26% on the first day of trading. “I think we have a lot of work ahead to grow the business and prove ourselves to the market,” Shu said. Investors cited uncertainty over how Deliveroo would fare in the coming months among concerns that the company’s IPO at the end of March was overpriced. Deliveroo also faces intense competition from the likes of Just Eat Takeaway and Uber Eats. Various large investors led by Aviva Investors said Deliveroo’s treatment of workers was another important reason they would not participate in the float. Deliveroo insists its 100,000 workers are independent contractors, a status that means it does need to match rights for salaried employees such as sick pay or holiday. Workers marked Deliveroo’s float by riding past its headquarters in protest at working conditions. There was further uproar this week, when Deliveroo was forced to pause payment of a £16m flotation “thank you payment” for riders after a small number of riders were overpaid. Shu said all riders had now been given their bonus and those overpaid had been asked to return the extra cash. Shu told analysts on Thursday that “self-employment is what riders want”. He said that Deliveroo could cope financially if it was forced to give full employment rights to riders in markets such as Spain, where legislation to change the status of gig economy workers is under way. However, he said that the company would not be able to hire as many riders if its model changed. Shu said: “I’m not wedded to a particular model but I am wedded to what riders want. “We would like to offer more benefits and security to workers but I don’t think the solution is hourly pay, which would require a big shift in flexibility.” He added that he wanted to see changes to the law so that riders could “work completely flexibly but accrue benefits at the same time”. He expects Deliveroo to make a gross profit margin of between 7.5% and 8% on all transactions this year – although that does not include several costs, such as expansion or IT investment. Deliveroo has not yet made a profit.