Governments across the world took drastic measures to protect workers from the threat of widespread unemployment as the Covid-19 outbreak paralysed businesses. Thereby providing billions to companies to keep people employed.
Nevertheless, layoffs were inevitable. To prevent their enterprises from failing, many European corporations planned to implement downsizing strategies.
In the most recent reorganization, grocery delivery firm unicorn Gorillas , based in Berlin, said on Tuesday that it will let go of 300 of its team members, "with a sad heart," in order to reduce expenses and lengthen the company's runway.
The delivery firm plans to close its doors in a number of nations, including Italy, Spain, Denmark, and Belgium, in addition to laying off employees. Instead, it will now concentrate on being profitable in its five core regions, which are the US, Germany, France, the UK, and the Netherlands. The firm believes these areas will have enormous growth potential in the coming years. The corporation claims that these markets account for over 90% of its sales.
The company Gorillas said in a statement that, "After closing our last funding round in October 2021, we shifted our focus from hyper-growth to a clear path to profitability, which enabled us to increase the efficiency of our business significantly. The recent developments in the capital markets confirmed this strategy and proved that we need to reinforce our company’s focus on profitability. As a part of our plan, we have precisely defined our next strategic steps and how we can succeed in reaching our ambitions."
To give clients "the finest shopping experience imaginable," the business will begin focusing on the variety of its price, order experience, and logistics. The company stated, "We are starting the discussions today and, over the coming weeks, we will follow with local employee consultation processes in each market as appropriate."
Gorillas: Europe's fastest unicorn
Gorillas is a grocery delivery service founded in 2020 by Kagan Sumer that makes the assertion that it can bring desired items from the cart to the door in just 10 minutes. For a delivery cost of slightly more than $2, its consumers have access to more than 2,500 necessities at retail pricing.
Despite receiving around $1 billion in a Series C round in October 2021, the firm appears to be finding it difficult to attract money once more, according to Sifted.
Other recent announcements include the closure of AI startup BeyondMinds , which reportedly fired 65 people, and the 10% staff reduction at healthtech unicorn Kry .
You can learn more about the unicorn’s downsizing operations in this article.
