Global food delivery group Just Eat Takeaway.com NV JTKWY is laying off up to 350 Canadian employees as it becomes the latest company to cut costs in a tough industry market. The conglomerate bought Winnipeg-based SkipTheDishes in 2016, when it was one of Canada’s highest-profile startups. A LinkedIn analysis shows SkipTheDishes employs nearly 3,000 people across Canada, the largest group of which is in Winnipeg, where most of the layoffs are believed to have taken place. Although food delivery has soared in recent years, especially during the pandemic, the industry has faced a wave of consolidation in recent years as it struggled to manage its costs in the face of rapid growth. Like many courier-focused companies, it has also clashed with workers and unions over labor rights and costs. The delivery sector is also struggling with a world reopening after more than two years of staggered pandemic shutdowns. And since mid-November, markets have been punishing cash-hungry tech companies after years of booming growth at any cost. Just Eat Takeaway’s Amsterdam-listed shares have fallen more than 70 percent since then. Just Eat Takeaway says it has 94 million active customers in 22 countries and owns several other food delivery brands including Grubhub, Foodora and Lieferando. In August, the Dutch group revealed that its loss for the first half of 2022 had widened more than sevenfold to 3.5 billion euros ($4.6 billion) from 486 million euros a year earlier. Just Eat Takeaway says it has 94 million active customers in 22 countries JONATHAN HAYWARD/The Canadian Press Jitse Groen, the company’s chief executive, tried to reassure investors in a press release on August 3 saying that “our path to profitability is accelerating.” He said he expects the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to turn positive on an adjusted basis sometime next year. Just Eat Takeaway confirmed the Canadian layoffs after CTV News Winnipeg and tech news site BetaKit first reported them. “Following a comprehensive review of its Global Logistics workforce, Just Eat Takeaway.com has made changes to the global organization to better prepare the business and its partners for sustainable growth,” an unnamed spokesperson for Just Eat Takeaway said via e -mail on Monday. “This includes reducing the size of the Logistics team in Canada that supports multiple, global markets across the business.” SkipTheDishes’ early backers were Shopify Inc. executives Tobi Lutke and Wattpad Corp. co-founder Harley Finkelstein. Allen Lau, Two Small Fish Ventures co-founder Eva Lau and David’s Tea co-founder David Segal. Its acquisition in 2016 was worth up to 200 million dollars. In late August, Just Eat Takeaway sold its one-third stake in Brazilian food delivery platform iFood to Dutch multinational Prosus NV for up to €1.8 billion, including performance payments. In announcing the sale, Just Eat Takeaway said it “remains focused on improving its profitability and disciplined capital allocation”. After Canadian tech heavyweights like Shopify Inc., Wealthsimple Inc., Hootsuite Inc. and CFT Clear Finance Technology Corp. (Clearco) each announced rounds of cost-cutting layoffs this summer, industry cuts don’t appear to be slowing. CubicFarm Systems Corp., an indoor farm technology startup, said Monday it will cut its workforce in half, laying off 87 people to help save about $15.6 million a year. Langley, BC-based CubicFarm also saw a staff turnover just weeks ago.
