After all, in the past two years the number of people who have placed a food order on Uber Eats in the UK has almost doubled. And across Europe, there has been 50% year-on-year growth in grocery orders.

A not insignificant percentage of those orders may have come from Troughton himself, one suspects, after hearing him evangelize about Uber’s food offering.

“You might be shocked by my orders. I’ve gone from being a restaurant junkie to a food addict and basically ordering every other day, if not daily,” says Troughton with the frenetic energy of a puppy with a new toy. “If you have a pet, you can order pet food. If you’re in the mood for a party, there’s party stuff. Push away, push away, order away,” he says.

Uber Eats rivals – mainly Deliveroo and Just eat – moved to grocery stores at the same time. But arguably Uber Eats has pushed harder and moved faster to capture what Troughton calls a “massive opportunity.”

In addition to constantly increasing expanded partnerships with major retailers, Uber Eats has been eagerly improving its underlying technology and overall grocery offering. For example, giving users the option to choose their next best option if an item is out of stock.

There is also replacement approval, where a store colleague can inform the user that an item is out of stock and get their OK for the exchange. Earlier this year, Co-op began offering in-app access to member fares on Uber Eats, a UK supermarket first for a delivery aggregator app. “We are always looking to respond to trade challenges,” says Troughton.

It must be doing something right. Currently, nearly a third of its grocery customers use Uber Eats only to shop for food. And it’s not – as the cynics have long assumed – just nighttime booze and sugary snacks. Over the past two years, 74% of Uber Eats’ grocery growth in the UK has been driven by fresh produce and household staples categories.

That finding “was a real moment for the food industry,” says Troughton. “It’s been exponential and it’s a core part of Uber as a business.”

Pick, pack and pay

Future developments may be even more significant. In June, Uber Eats announced that couriers would soon pick items from store shelves and deliver the orders. Hailed as the first in Europe for a delivery platform, the “Courier Pick & Pack” service follows similar operations in the US, Japan and Australia, where it helps retailers better manage surges in demand when store staff need to man checkouts or perform other tasks.

Uber Eats has “squirrelled away in the background to get it launched,” says Troughton. “These things are not easy and take a lot of time. We make sure we get it right from the time we launch because it’s brand new.”

More great interviews:

‘All I think about is retail media’: SMG and the billion pound opportunity

Can David Milner work his magic again with Crosta & Mollica?

Caterfood CEO Phil Atyeo on running a different type of buying group

Wycliffe Sande on being a black founder and paying it forward

The concept was actually pioneered by Instacart in the US, while in the UK and Ireland it was piloted by Buymie via official partnerships with the likes of the Co-op and Asda – and several unofficial ones. Aldi ended up issuing Buymie – since the acquisition of Dunnes Stores – a cease and desist notice.

“Historically, there has been some friction,” Troughton admits. “We’re here to facilitate (retailers) as much as possible.” Unlike Buymie, “we work with the partner hand in hand”. Its approach may even overturn the current model eventually.

There’s also Uber Eats’ “flying” white-label delivery offering, Uber Direct. This sees retailers or restaurants using their couriers and technology to power their own apps and websites. It’s a solid response to supermarkets’ concerns that aggregator apps were stealing customer data and contacts from them.

whoosh is “awesome”

While some supermarkets are on all aggregator apps, some notably are not, such as Tesco Whoosh. But it’s Uber Direct that does a lot of the legwork behind the scenes of Whoosh. “It’s a great business, Whoosh, and we’ve been lucky enough to be along for the ride for quite a while,” says Troughton. “Obviously they’re pushing it very hard, which is great.”

Whether Tesco will stick with Direct or move on to the Uber Eats app – like its cafes and One Stop stores – remains to be seen. Some, like Sainsbury’s, do both: stores are on the app, but its quick Chop Chop service is powered by Uber Direct.

“They know what we can do in the marketplace,” Troughton says. “We’re here to help if they want to come and get all the customers who might not traditionally be Tesco customers sitting in our marketplace, on the go – that’s their call. On the marketplace, we have millions of active users wandering around looking for food orders.”

These users are also looking for non-food items – and now find an increasing range of gifts, beauty, flowers (“I’m obsessed with buying lilies,” says Troughton) and pharmacies on the platform to “fill any gaps” in user demand.

To suggest that grocery and retail is a small side business to takeout on Uber Eats would be “harsh,” says Troughton.

“In the UK alone, Uber Eats operates over a much wider range than Uber Rides. And that’s just a microcosm of a country,” he says. “Personally, I hope we’ll see (restaurants on) Uber Eats at some point. That is my long-term ambition. It won’t happen tomorrow, but with the joy and retention we now see from our customers – why not?”