The Berlin delivery service start-up Gorillas
From BZ/dpa
The food delivery service Gorillas parted with half of its administrative machinery – 300 of the 600 employees there have to go across all locations.
The Berlin start-up announced on Tuesday that the downsizing affects the global headquarters. A spokesman emphasized that the drivers, the so-called riders, were not affected by the job cuts. It was not initially known to which country most of the employees would have to go.
According to Gorillas, the main purpose of this step is to save costs in order to become profitable in the long term. Rapid growth is therefore no longer a strategic goal.
From now on, business will focus on the five core markets of Germany, France, the Netherlands, Great Britain and the USA. To date, Gorillas has also been active in Italy, Spain, Denmark and Belgium. It is said that it is currently being examined how things will go on in these markets.
At Gorillas, customers can order supermarket products via an app. The company promises delivery within ten minutes. To this end, Gorillas operates a dense network of department stores in the cities from which the products are delivered.
The company has made headlines since its inception in 2020 due to conflicts with its drivers. Above all, they criticized the working conditions and emphasized their demands with so-called wildcat strikes. The riders now have their own works council.
