Waitr Holdings Inc (WTRH)

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$WTRH Local News = Food delivery app Waitr aims to hire 200 drivers in Houston

Lafayette, Louisiana-bases food delivery service Waitr Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: WTRH), which Tilman Fertitta's first blank check company took public in 2018, is hiring.

The company aims to hire 200 new contract drivers in the Houston area, according to an Aug. 11 press release. Candidates must be 18 years or older and have a valid driver’s license, proof of auto insurance and a smart phone.

Waitr provides masks, gloves and sanitation spray to drivers and offers no-contact delivery, the release notes.

The news comes a few months after Waitr saw a shake-up in its C-suite, refocused its operations back to Lafayette and laid off all its drivers companywide as it switched to contract drivers. Waitr's drivers used to be hourly employees, but they were given the option to apply to stay on as independent contractors, The Acadiana Advocate reported at the time. The company disclosed 2,300 layoffs in Louisiana, 491 in Alabama, 443 in Mississippi and 219 in Beaumont, Texas, per the Advocate. However, due to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requirements, Waitr might not have had to file WARN letters for certain locations depending on the size of the layoffs.

The Advocate also noted that Waitr experienced a tumultuous year leading up to the layoffs, which included a rocky integration of Bite Squad and a delisting warning.

But the company's financial performance appears to be improving. On Aug. 6, Waitr reported $60.5 million in second-quarter revenue, an 18% year over year increase. Net income for Q2 was $10.7 million, or 10 cents per diluted share, compared to a loss of $24.9 million, or 32 cents per diluted share, in Q2 2019. After closing below $1 per share since Oct. 17, 2019, Waitr's stock has been climbing since mid-March — the same time many restaurants across the country were forced to close their dining rooms and switch to to-go or delivery only. The stock closed at $4.76 per share on Aug. 10.


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Waitr reported an average of 44,241 orders per day in Q2, up 18% compared to the first quarter of 2020.

“We are pleased with our second quarter results, especially our strong revenue growth and profitability," Carl Grimstad, CEO and chairman of the board of Waitr, said in the earnings report. "Our solid performance in the second quarter is a result of the initiatives we implemented pre-pandemic and the hard work of our team members, our restaurant partners and our drivers, as well as the trust that we have earned from our customers who have relied on us to deliver high-quality food throughout the pandemic.

“We continue to reinforce our presence in our most important markets by increasing delivery areas, adding grocery and alcohol delivery services, and expanding our customer service and dispatch teams. All of these growth initiatives are being supported by a leaner cost structure with an eye on efficiencies and appropriate returns on deployed capital.”

In the Aug. 11 press release, Grimstad cited continued demand for restaurant delivery as a factor in the need for additional drivers in Houston. Waitr and sister brand Bite Squad deliver food from restaurants and grocery stores in over 600 cities, mostly small and medium-sized markets. Locally, the company serves Baytown, Clear Lake, Galveston, Houston, Kemah, Lake Jackson and Pasadena. As of June 30, the company had over 2 million active diners.

Waitr was founded in 2013 and taken public in 2018 via a $308 million deal with Landcadia Holdings Inc., a blank-check company formed by Fertitta and Leucadia National Corp., the previous name of the Jeffries Financial Group. In 2019, Fertitta and Jeffries teamed up for a second blank-check company, which will take Golden Nugget Online Gaming Inc. public later this year.


Meanwhile, another Fertitta-owned company is entering the food delivery business amid the pandemic. Landry's Inc. announced Aug. 10 that it launched Landry's Kitchen, which delivers raw steaks and seafood to customers' homes.


https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2020/08/11/waitr-hiring-drivers-in-houston.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search