Foodpanda has to lay off 300 employees

After Delivery Hero announced that it was shutting down the Foodpanda brand in Germany, the company must now lay off 300 employees.

The news on Wednesday came as a surprise: Foodpanda is shutting down its German business. The direct result is the dismissal of 300 employees. It is not known whether these are riders or personnel from the HR, marketing or administrative areas. Foodpanda employs a total of 1,000 people.

As Gründerszene suspected, it is less about riders and more about employees from the headquarters. The drivers could also be passed on, for example to the competitor Gorillas, in which Delivery Hero has held eight percent since October of this year.

The company spoke to Gründerszene about placing employees internally or with partners from the industry. As early as Thursday, as a temporary solution, the riders are supposed to deliver "orders for other players in the industry". It is not clear who these are.

Foodpanda had announced on Wednesday that it would no longer deliver in Germany. To do so, the brand is pulling out of all cities except Berlin. There, an innovation center for the delivery industry is to be built. The reasons given by co-founder Niklas Östberg were that the competition in the market was too great, but at the same time there was a lack of drivers.