Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based delivery startup Gopuff has cut hundreds of workers as part of an earlier round of layoffs over the summer.
Bloomberg News reported on the about 250 job cuts Wednesday (Oct. 19), citing sources familiar with the matter. Some employees told Bloomberg the cuts were “chaotic,” as they weren’t given a warning before their access to internal email and human resource portals were revoked.
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Other full-time workers were informed severance packages were “coming soon.” The report says the layoffs were centered around customer service staff, both full-time and temporary employees.
In an email to PYMNTS Wednesday, the company said the layoffs were part of the early round from July and that “for legal and operational reasons,” the actual impact was delayed for this group of employees.
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“In July Gopuff announced a company-wide reorganization and 10% reduction in workforce as part of a broader restructuring effort to focus on profitability,” the company said. “The most recent impacts to the customer service team were part of this reorganization which we’ve been implementing for the last three months.”
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The news came the same day that U.K- based delivery service Deliveroo announced it was closing its operations in the Netherlands, saying that country accounted for just 1% of its gross transaction value during the first half of 2022.
PYMNTS noted earlier this week that this year had been a challenging one for the ultrafast grocery delivery sector, which has seen its players shrink, close down or face other difficulties due to a more challenging economic climate.
For one thing, investors have been withdrawing, with funding for these startups dropping from north of $4 billion last year to just over $1 billion so far in 2022. In addition to the Gopuff layoffs, delivery service Getir in May laid off 14% of its workforce at its global headquarters.