Flash deliverers Getir and Gorillas plan to lay off some of their staff worldwide. Turkey’s Getir announced in a letter to staff on Wednesday that it would lay off at least 14 percent of all employees – more than 4,400 people, it reported. international media† Earlier this week, the German flash delivery company Gorillas confirmed to say goodbye to such a three hundred employees and withdraw from four countries where it currently operates. Both companies are also active in the Netherlands; It is not immediately known what the redundancies mean for Dutch employees.
The Getir top writes in the letter to its own staff that “rising inflation and the deteriorating macroeconomic outlook” are forcing global adjustment. It was not specified in the letter which positions will be lifted and which countries will have the most layoffs. It does, however, make it clear that spending on marketing investments and company expansion will decrease, among other things. The flash delivery company remains active in all nine countries – including the Netherlands – where it is now located. It is estimated that Getir (about 936 million euros in turnover in 2021) employs 32,000 people worldwide.
Gorillas (more than 10,000 employees, 206 million euros turnover in 2021) states that they want to increase the “efficiency” of the company “significantly”. Partly by firing several hundred employees, partly by withdrawing from Italy, Spain, Denmark and Belgium. Rather than focusing on “hypergrowth,” it wants to take a clear path of “profitability.” In their own words, 90 percent of the turnover comes from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Netherlands.
Competitive Battle
Against de Volkskrant says Gorillas that the new focus ‘has consequences for a number of colleagues in the Dutch office’. The company did not say how many layoffs will be made and who will be affected. Getir and Gorillas were ahead NRC not directly accessible.
Flash delivery company Getir was one of the first of its kind when it was founded in 2015. The concept – super-fast delivery of groceries, especially in large cities – broke through during the corona pandemic. There are now countless comparable start-ups, such as Gorillas, but the British Zapp and German Flink are also active in the Netherlands. The services compete with each other, resulting in relatively cheap groceries and, in some cases, poor working conditions for deliverers.
The rivals are almost all created with hundreds of millions in venture capital, with the aim of expanding as quickly as possible. In part, this, combined with the low prices due to discounts for customers to bind them, results in the speed cameras suffering huge losses. In recent years, investors have doubted whether the branch is viable at all in the long term.
Also read this interview with Getir founder Nazim Salur from 2021: “You think burning millions a week is a lot. Not me’