Foodpanda makes 'painful decision' to axe some S'pore employees, citing need to cut costs and stay competitive

SINGAPORE — Food delivery platform Foodpanda said on Wednesday (Sept 7) that it has made the "painful decision" to retrench some of its employees in Singapore in order to reduce costs.

While the delivery platform did not answer TODAY’s queries about how many employees were affected, tech news outlet DealStreetAsia reported on Sept 2 that the company had let go of 5 per cent of its Singapore-based regional team last week.

In a press release in July this year, Foodpanda stated that its Singapore headquarters houses 1,200 employees from its regional and local operational teams, among others.

Foodpanda’s spokesperson said on Wednesday that it has been operating in Asia for the past decade and it wants to “continue contributing to its digital future”.

However, its parent company, Berlin-based Delivery Hero, has a “clear objective” to become profitable, the spokesperson added.

Given this directive, there is a “critical need now to reduce costs and move to profitability to remain competitive”, and that Foodpanda had to make the “painful decision to downsize some teams”.

“To our impacted colleagues — we are very sorry we let them down; we will forever be grateful for their contributions and dedication to Foodpanda,” said the spokesperson, adding that the company is providing support to the affected employees.

Reuters news agency reported last December that Delivery Hero was scaling down its Foodpanda operations in Germany and selling the subsidiary's Japan unit due to increased competition and labour shortages.

Another household name that has been in the news recently because of job cuts is the e-commerce platform Shopee.

Earlier this year, media reports also said Shopee had shed headcount in Southeast Asia, Mexico and Latin America. Shopee declined to comment on those reports.

On Tuesday, the e-commerce platform again made the headlines after news agency Reuters reported that Shopee had rescinded dozens of job offers in the past two weeks, a move that began shortly after parent company Sea reported widening losses and sharply slower revenue growth.