Swiggy lays off 1100 staff

Indian food-delivery company Swiggy is laying off 1100 staff after Covid-19 severely hit its sales. 

Besides laying off nearly 14 per cent of its workforce, Swiggy is also to cut back adjacent businesses and shut some of its cloud kitchens either temporarily or permanently. 

The staff reductions of food-delivery companies in India comes in stark contrast to the industry’s performance in other Asian markets, where the closure of stores and strict social-distancing measures have fuelled a boom in home-delivered meals. 

“The core food-delivery business has been severely impacted and will stay impacted over the short term, but is expected to start growing again after that,” CEO of Swiggy, Sriharsha Majety, said in an email to the employees, according to a report in the Economic Times of India. “We need to hence prepare to come out stronger on the other side by continuing to build on capabilities that will help us make the most of the opportunity when things are better again. 

“While we are very fortunate to have raised capital just before Covid-19 hit and have sufficient runway today, it is incredibly important to prepare for worse scenarios in the macro environment and make sure we are protected,” she said.

Swiggy is one of many companies in India laying off staff. Recently, rival Zomato announced that it will drop 520 employees – equivalent to 13 per cent of its workforce – as it has badly suffered from the Covid-19 impact. 

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