Downtown delivery Skipthedishes moving from East Exchange to four-and-a-half floors of True North Square By: Martin Cash Posted: 7:00 PM CST Monday, Nov. 4, 2019

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This article was published 03/11/2019 (1782 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg’s newest large company is moving into its newest downtown office tower.

Skipthedishes, the Winnipeg-based food delivery/technology company, has signed a lease for four-and-a-half floors of True North Square’s office tower for occupancy Dec. 1, 2020.

The company that started in Winnipeg with only a a handful of people in 2012, now employs almost 2,400 people in the city (not including the independent courier operators) who are spread out over three locations in the East Exchange.

One of the first players in the North American food delivery business, which continues to be in growth mode, has been squeezed for space for some time and it was no secret it has been looking to find a more permanent location.

Having said that, it will retain space in 140 Bannatyne for its sizable 24/7 operations support, but the rest of the staff will move into about 95,000 square feet of space at 242 Hargrave St. by the end of next year.

“We needed to build out our long term space here,” said Kevin Edwards, CEO of Skipthedishes. “We are in three buildings, on many, many floors. It is very inefficient and that’s one of the reasons we needed to do the consolidation.”

Currently its main hub is in several floors of 136 Market Ave. a block south of the Bannatyne Avenue space. The company also has a number of staff in offices at 423 Main Street, the former Canadian Wheat Board building. It also has a few people in offices in Toronto, Calgary and Saskatoon.

Jim Ludlow, the CEO of True North Real Estate Development, is thrilled to land another prestige tenant to his office tower that opened 16 months ago.

“We think it’s very good for everyone concerned,” Ludlow said. “It materially fills the building and fulfills the vision of True North Square when we undertook it a number of years ago. We have been very fortunate. We now have a compliment of leading Canadian and Manitoba large format tenants in 242 Hargrave.”

He said another tenant announcement will be made in the next two months — to go along with the likes of Skip, and current tenants TDS Law, Ceridian, MNP and Scotiabank — that will bring the 17-storey office tower to 95 per cent occupancy.

“That puts us in a place slightly beyond where we expected to be at this time,” he said.

It’s not clear if the founders of Skipthedishes — only one of whom is still involved with the company — expected to be in such a “place” only seven years after it was formed by a few young guys from Saskatoon.

The company was acquired by U.K.-based Just Eat three years ago and over the first six months of this year Skip has generated a profit for the first time. Revenue for the first half of this year increased 79 per cent to $225.5 million.

“We are in three buildings, on many, many floors. It is very inefficient and that’s one of the reasons we needed to do the consolidation.” – CEO Kevin Edwards

”We continue to work toward profitability,” Edwards said. “We have a fantastic business and platform here and we receive amazing long term commitment to continue to support Skip from Just Eat. It is a great vote of confidence in how we are performing as a business.”

Edwards said in the midst of growing competition, Skip is the number one food delivery company in Canada.

In addition to its continuing rapid growth in the Canadian market, Skip’s technology is fuelling the growth of Just Eat’s operations in Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere in Europe where it operates.

Just Eat is currently in the midst of significant merger discussions with a Dutch company called Takeaway.com that values Just Eat at close to $8 billion.

Edwards said the merger would be good news for Skip because it would mean it will continue to be an important part of an even larger enterprise.

“We are so proud of the platform we’ve built here at Skip,” he said. “Being able to leverage it successfully in other key markets… we’re very, very proud of that. It’s something that distinguishes Skip in the global marketplace.”

It’s success and growth has also helped fuel a growth spurt in the East Exchange. And although a good number of those people will move to True North Square next year, both the landlord of 136 Market Ave. and Exchange District promoters believe there’s plenty of demand for the space that Skip will vacate.

“We have been talking with Yes! Winnipeg for some time about tech companies that want to move into the Exchange District,” said David Pensato, executive director the Exchange District Biz. “I bet the space will be filled in before they’re gone.”

Arni Thorsteinson, whose company Shelter Canadian Properties, renovated 136 Maret Avenue 25 years ago, said he’s confident the building will attract new tenants.

The fact that Skipthedishes has chosen to build out its headquarters in Winnipeg was good news for the tech community and will bolster the city’s reputation especially as Skip and other Winnipeg companies are intensely engaged in recruiting talent from all over.

Dayna Spiring, CEO of Economic Development Winnipeg, said, “It’s a real feather in our cap. They were getting offers from Toronto and Calgary with plenty of incentives to move. Calgary’s got nothing but empty office space and they’re giving it away.”

 

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca