Major regional food delivery provider Foodpanda has recently confirmed a wave of layoffs last Friday, 22 September. This is being done amidst continued pressure to streamline its operations, despite two previous rounds of layoffs within a year’s time. The company had cut staff in September 2022 and in February 2023.
According to The Straits Times, who had seen a memo from Foodpanda chief executive Jakob Angele, the company’s current priority is to “become leaner, more efficient and even more agile”.
The memo allegedly outlined the support for the affected staff, which he said are at least on a par with, or above, market standards. Staff who are being let go will receive a severance package that will vary based on length of service or is aligned with the countries’ statutory guidelines, or both, and garden leave with full pay and benefits.
Foodpanda also intends to offer other forms of support, including extended medical insurance, career advisory services, encashment of any unused and accrued annual leave, as well as a waiver of the minimum period of time for the vesting of stock options.
The latest round of layoffs at Foodpanda comes during a rather tumultuous time as Foodpanda’s parent firm, Berlin-headquartered Delivery Hero, confirmed plans to sell its Foodpanda business in Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.
Currently, popular ride-hailing company, Grab, is interested in purchasing Foodpanda, and could potentially pay up to €1 billion (approx. RM4.98 billion) for it.
The Singapore news daily also reported that Foodpanda is carefully reviewing its organisational structure across both regional and country teams for clearer decision-making, reshuffling the leaders staff report to and consolidating selected functions into a main regional team.
