Getir’s  late bills, staff cuts show delivery’s European decline

BLOOMBERG

Turkish startup Getir said it struggled to pay some bills in Germany and will cut more than 10% of its global workforce, as the rapid delivery service seeks to raise new funds and attempt to turn around its cash-hungry business.
About 2,500 employees will be cut overall, though the company will continue operating in its five current markets, Istanbul-based Getir said in a statement to Bloomberg.
Across the industry, companies that promised ultra-fast delivery of everything from perishables to birth control are cutting costs and consolidating. Investors who’d poured money into the sector during the Covid-19 pandemic are demanding a clear path to profitability.
The dismissals will affect the whole organization, executives told employees on Tuesday, according to people who attended the calls.
The head of the company’s core delivery business, Hatice Evren, said that Getir is in the process of a fundraising round and right now there is less appetite to invest in tech companies, according to the people. Workers will be notified if they are losing their job by the end of the week, Evren said. The cuts come after Getir — which in March 2022 raised money at a $11.8 billion valuation — shut its French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish divisions earlier this year.
Many units still struggled after the company exited those markets. Founder and Chief Executive Officer Nazim Salur told employees at an all-hands meeting in July that Getir’s only profitable unit is its home market of Turkey, according to two people who were on the call. Getir also operates in the US, UK, the Netherlands and Germany.
Accounts from more than half a dozen current and former Getir employees, ranging from managers and supervisors to warehouse workers, all of whom asked not to be identified because the information is not public, describe how the company has struggled with slowing demand in recent months.
Shelves intended for fresh produce at Getir’s Berlin dark stores — small, centrally located warehouses that help fill orders quickly — sat empty at the end of July, as the company struggled to pay its suppliers and orders slowed below the typical summer lull, people familiar with the matter said.
A Getir spokesperson declined to comment beyond the company’s statement on restructuring.
Getir was founded in 2015 to offer grocery delivery and grew rapidly when consumers were stuck inside during pandemic-era lockdowns. It has raised around $1.8 billion in seven funding rounds, according to CrunchBase data. Less than a year ago, the company acquired Gorillas, a competitor with a strong presence in Germany and the UK that had boomed during the pandemic in a deal that valued the business at $1.2 billion, people familiar with the matter said at the time.