Delivery giant foodpanda trims APAC workforce to streamline operations amidst acquisition talks

Food delivery platform foodpanda is laying off an undisclosed number of employees across Asia-Pacific while its parent company, Delivery Hero, is in preliminary discussions with potential buyers to sell part of its Southeast Asian food delivery business.

In a memo seen by CNBC, Jakob Sebastian Angele, APAC CEO of foodpanda, shared that the company’s main priority now is “to become leaner, more efficient and even more agile”. As such, the company aims to streamline its operations to “take on a more structured approach for the coming days”.

This marks the company’s third round of layoffs across Southeast Asia, following a round job cuts in February, which mainly affected its staff in Malaysia. Prior to that, the company reportedly retrenched 60 employees in Singapore back in September last year — or about 5 per cent of its 1,200 workforce — amid economic headwinds.

“While we already implemented some measures earlier this year, there is more we have to do to create the right set-up for our operations,” Jakob told CNBC.

Since its inception in 2011, Delivery Hero has yet to become profitable. Although it achieved a notably reduced loss of over €832 million in the first half of the year compared to nearly €1.5 billion the previous year, analysts had anticipated a more modest deficit.

Featured Image Credit: foodpanda