Deliveroo to make hundreds of redundancies as cost of living crisis bites

British-based employees are expected to bear the brunt of hundreds of job cuts at Deliveroo.

Will Shu, the delivery group’s chief executive and founder, told staff yesterday that it would cut 9 per cent, or about 350 jobs, at all levels, but the redundancies would not include riders who deliver its takeaways. They are self-employed.

In a blog post, Shu said the job cuts were one of the hardest things he had ever done and he took responsibility for overhiring. “In recent years we grew our headcount very quickly,” he wrote. “This was a response to unprecedented growth rates supported by Covid-related tailwinds. By contrast, we now face serious and unforeseen economic headwinds. We have also recently exited markets, meaning we do not require the same size workforce to support our operations. Quite bluntly, our fixed cost base is too big for our business.”

The final number of jobs lost may be closer to 300 as the company aims to redeploy 50 people if possible.

Deliveroo thrived during the pandemic, which drove demand for its services as lockdowns kept people at home. This has reversed as restrictions have been eased.

Deliveroo was founded in London in 2013 by Shu and Greg Orlowski, both 43. It works with about 176,000 restaurants and grocery partners, deploying about 150,000 riders to deliver food to customers, operating in ten markets including France, Hong Kong and Italy.

The number of technology sector workers who have lost their jobs so far this year is more than 98,000. Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Spotify have all announced redundancies recently.