SkipTheDishes lays off 350 Winnipeg staff

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This article was published 09/09/2022 (741 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SkipTheDishes suddenly laid off hundreds of its Winnipeg workers on Friday.

The company confirmed that 350 people were let go.

A spokesperson for the parent company, Just Eat Takeaway.com, said after review of its global logistics workforce, the company made changes “to best set the business and its partners up for sustainable growth. This includes reducing the size of its logistics team in Canada that support multiple, global markets across the business.”

SkipTheDishes, which started in Winnipeg in 2012, was acquired by the British company, Just Eat at the end of 2016, which went on to merge with the Dutch company, Takeaway.com. It subsequently acquired the U.S. food delivery company, GrubHub and has made other acquisitions.

The company spokesperson confirmed to the Free Press that at least some of those laid off were “contact centre employees” who are based in Winnipeg but support company operations elsewhere around the world.

In the last several years as the food delivery business exploded, Just Eat Takeaway.com has become one of the global leaders in that business with operations in the U.S., the U. K., Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland, as well as through partnerships in Colombia and Brazil.

When the company announced its move into four-and-a-half floors in the new office space in True North Square office building at 42 Hargrave St. in 2019 it had about 2,400 employees in Winnipeg.

The pandemic caused a surge in the use of food delivery operations, but in its second quarter results that came out in the beginning of August, Just Eat Takeaway.com said orders were down seven per cent in the first half of 2022 compared to 2021.

But its revenue still grew by seven per cent to $3.668 billion over the fist two quarters of this year.

The Winnipeg layoffs are likely a result of softening business levels around the world now that COVID social distancing mandates have been dropped in most countries around the world and the use of food delivery is not as essential as many people felt it was during the pandemic.

Although SkipTheDishes was one of the first entrants into the market, industry consolidation and competition from large players like Uber Eats has made margins slim.

As large as Just Eat Takeaway.com is — it doubled in size since before the pandemic — it is not currently generating a profit.

Company CEO, Jitse Groen, said, it hopes to have a profitable operating result by 2023.

martin.cash@freepres.mb.ca