Foodpanda confirms layoffs, says it is in talks to promote a part of Asia meals shipping industry

A courier for Foodpanda, a meal-delivery carrier operated via Supply Hero AG, exams his smartphone whilst sitting on a motorbike on the corporate’s operations heart in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday, March 16, 2018. Bangkok’s famed love affair with meals is spilling over to meal-delivery apps, a fledgling sector that Foodpanda tasks will surge in 2018 as pageant intensifies. Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures

Brent Lewin | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures

Singapore-headquartered meals shipping carrier Foodpanda on Friday showed to CNBC that it’s undertaking its newest spherical of layoffs because the wish to be “extra agile stays important.”

“Our corporate precedence at the moment is to change into leaner, extra environment friendly and much more agile. To do that, we wish to streamline our operations so we will tackle a extra structured manner for the approaching days,” Jakob Sebastian Angele, APAC CEO of Foodpanda, stated on Thursday in a letter shared with staff noticed via CNBC.

He didn’t point out the collection of staff impacted nor departments affected.

That is Foodpanda’s 3rd spherical of layoffs since activity cuts in February and September closing 12 months amid macroeconomic headwinds, in keeping with media reviews. Take hold of and Deliveroo have additionally lowered headcount this 12 months.

“Whilst we already applied some measures previous this 12 months, there may be extra we need to do to create the correct set-up for our operations,” stated Angele.

The ones measures come with reviewing organizational construction throughout each regional and nation groups in addition to moving some practical reporting traces into other leaders for extra consistency and center of attention, stated Angele.

The layoffs come as Foodpanda dad or mum Supply Hero is in initial discussions with doable consumers to promote a part of its Southeast Asian meals shipping industry, the Berlin-based corporate showed with CNBC.

On Wednesday, German media outlet WirtschaftsWoche reported that Supply Hero is promoting its operations underneath the Foodpanda emblem in Singapore, Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Laos.

“Supply Hero confirms negotiations with a number of events referring to a possible sale of its foodpanda industry in decided on Southeast Asia markets. Any discussions or plans are of their initial phases,” the company advised CNBC in an e-mail, with out bringing up explicit markets.

The German media document additionally stated that competitor Take hold of generally is a purchaser. When CNBC reached out, Take hold of declined to remark at the topic.

“Take hold of’s competition whether or not Gojek or Foodpanda are shedding marketplace proportion. Take hold of is gaining marketplace proportion in deliveries from Foodpanda who may even go out few markets sooner or later. Foodpanda is dis-advantaged because of its stand-alone shipping type,” stated Sachin Mittal, head of telecom, media and era analysis at DBS Financial institution, in a Sept. 21 notice.

Take hold of is the chief in Southeast Asia’s meals shipping marketplace, conserving 54% of the area’s gross merchandize price in 2022, whilst Foodpanda captured 19% and Gojek held 12%, in keeping with a document from tech analysis company Momentum Works.

Difficult running atmosphere

Meals shipping gamers are seeking to keep afloat amid financial headwinds. Take hold of slashed prices previously few quarters because the company involved in profitability. Supply Hero in the past stated that its “center of attention stays on our long run dedication to development a sustainable, successful industry.”

Supply Hero has but to change into successful since its inception in 2011. For the primary part of 2023, Supply Hero reported a web lack of 832.3 million euros ($886.9 million), when compared with a lack of 1.495 billion euros a 12 months prior.

Jonathan Woo, senior analysis analyst at Phillip Securities Analysis, stated that Foodpanda probably promoting Southeast Asia companies is “conventional marketplace consolidation after intense pageant, particularly as scrutiny over profitability intensifies.”

“Only some marketplace gamers — Take hold of, GoTo — in Southeast Asia may just purchase out Foodpanda,” stated Woo, including that such an acquisition could be “maximum interesting to Take hold of” which is extra entrenched within the area in comparison to GoTo or Deliveroo.

GoTo is the blended corporate following a merger between Indonesia’s Gojek, which operates ride-hailing and meals shipping companies, and e-commerce large Tokopedia.

In December 2021, Foodpanda introduced it might scale down operations in Germany and go out the Japan marketplace. Each Foodpanda and Take hold of have expanded to dine-in services and products as customers resume their day by day routines and pass out and dine in additional ceaselessly.