Ever Wonder How Your Delivery Arrives So Fast?

**Tim Elliott** (0:00)
This is the Morning Drive at Mira Business FM. From rising customer expectations to regional disruption, the pressure on delivery networks has never been higher. This morning, we're going to pull back the curtain on one of the most visible logistics operations in the UAE, the technology, perhaps, the leadership, the split-second decisions that keep one of the region's biggest logistics operations moving. How real-time data drives decisions, how you balance speed with driver welfare, and the innovations shaping the future of last-mile delivery across the Emirates and the wider region. Constantin Kodsi, or Kosti, as he's known, is the director of logistics for the UAE at Talabat with me in the studio. It's good to meet you.

**Constantin Kodsi** (0:48)
Thanks a lot, Tim, for having me here today. So let me just start by giving a little bit of an introduction of Talabat. I think that would be good for our audience.

**Tim Elliott** (0:56)
Jump in.

**Constantin Kodsi** (0:57)
So Talabat is actually operational in eight markets as of today.
And after our Q1 results, which is an impressive thing for us at that scale, we are already growing at 23% year over year, quarter one. And then we are serving almost six plus million customers across the region. We have 65,000 plus vendors and around 120,000 plus riders.

**Tim Elliott** (1:21)
OK, so you hit me with the figures early on. They're impressive figures. Let me get the history of Talabat from you. I'm aware of Talabat. I've been here for some time, and I know there have been a few iterations, there have been a few owners of Talabat.
But I think most of us take a business like yours a little bit for granted. And I don't mean that to be impolite, but it's pretty simple, it's seamless. You order, you pay, somebody turns up with your stuff. That's the model. And it seems really easy. So I want to delve into that. There's obviously more to it. So tell me a bit about the history of Talabat, and then tell me about your role, because you're head of logistics.

**Constantin Kodsi** (2:06)
For sure. We've been acquired by Delivery Hero, I would say, in 2016, 2017, around that time. The company was founded in 2004 from Kuwait.
And since then, this is where we are. We IPO'd in 2024 on the Dubai Stock Exchange. And this is, in short, the history of the company. The growth has been steady over the last years, which is, again, still impressive, provided the scale of the business that we have. And where my role actually sits is...
It's a privilege, I would say, to have this role, because it's a fun role. It sits at the intersection of strategy, execution and innovation. And trust me, Tim, there's not a lot of roles that actually allows you to live in those three different worlds. Because usually, either you are an expert in the first one, the second one or the third one, but for you to be able to do the three of them is just beyond exciting.
Now, on top of this, my main or core job, I would say, is looking after the cost per order, which is one of the biggest line items in the P&L, and has a lot of commercials implications. And it actually covers almost everything. From your partner, to the rider welfare, to the customer experience that you actually want to be providing. And finally, to how competitive do you want to be in the market that you are operating in? And given the UAE is a very competitive market, that becomes even more important. Now, to your point, you're saying about the seamless stuff. I think this is flattening, because that means we're doing a very good job for us to be delivering such a seamless experience for you, while it is not actually that simple.

**Tim Elliott** (3:56)
No, I mean, I know, and I'm underplaying it for obvious reasons. It seems to me that it's a little bit like a swan on a lake. It looks serene and it looks beautiful and it's regal. But you know underneath, the feet are doing this, they're flapping like crazy. It must be a little bit like that behind the scenes.
Incredibly complex, I think. You recently shared a video, a behind the scenes look at your life at Talabat on social media. What would you like more people to understand about the complexity of managing a logistics operation in the way that you do?

**Constantin Kodsi** (4:35)
I'll go back to the point of you saying that, okay, you go to the app, I place an order, then I get it in 15, 20 minutes, and it looks seamless, right?