Online food delivery app Swiggy to cut about 1,000 jobs, most from its cloud kitchen division, as India’s top food delivery startup scales back some of its businesses in response to the coronavirus pandemic that has drastically affected millions of firms.
The COVID-19 outbreak, which has severely hit the travel, hospitality, and aviation sectors the most, has brought businesses to a standstill since March-end.
Swiggy confirmed the development of downsizing private kitchen staff without disclosing the number of people likely to be affected by the retrenchment.
In a statement, Swiggy spokesperson said, “it was evaluating various means to stay nimble and focus on growth and profitability across our kitchens.”
“This will, unfortunately, have an impact on a certain number of kitchen staff who will be fully supported during this transition,” said the spokesperson.
The virus outbreak and the subsequent lockdown are slowly pushing companies to downsize or streamline operations and workforces across the country. Urban unemployment rates have also been rising. Startup unicorns such as Swiggy and Oyo are laying off people to cut costs as demand remains muted.
According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s weekly tracker survey estimates, overall unemployment for the week ended 19 April shot up to 26.19% from 8.4% in mid-March. Urban unemployment rose to 25.08% from 8.66% during the same period.
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