SkipTheDishes is laying off hundreds of Canadian employees as part of a significant restructuring by its parent company, Just Eat Takeaway.com, The Canadian Press reported Tuesday (Aug. 20).
Paul Burns, chief executive of SkipTheDishes, announced in a LinkedIn post that 100 Canada-based workers will be leaving the food delivery service, while another 700 Canadian staff who work for Just Eat Takeaway.com will also lose their jobs.
“The decision to cut staff was not easy but is necessary to ensure the business has the right resources and structure to drive growth,” says Burns.
SkipTheDishes, founded in Winnipeg in 2012 and a prominent player in Canada’s food delivery industry, was acquired by Just Eat in December 2016 for $110 million. Just Eat later merged with Takeaway.com in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, as pandemic measures have lifted, inflation and rising interest rates have affected consumers, leading many to cut back on spending, The Globe noted.
“Measures meant to quell the virus temporarily shut down many businesses and pushed people to spend increasing periods of time at home. The lack of venturing out was seen as a boon for food delivery services, which people increasingly turned to as comfort and convenience during the crisis. “As pandemic measures lifted, however, inflation and then interest rates soared, weighing on consumers and forcing many to look for ways to reduce spending.”
