UK food delivery giant Deliveroo will cut around 9% of its employees amid record high inflation and fears of a recession in the country, CEO Will Shu said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th February, 2023) UK food delivery giant Deliveroo will cut around 9% of its employees amid record high inflation and fears of a recession in the country, CEO Will Shu said on Thursday.
"We are starting a redundancy process across the company which could see around 9% of the company's workforce (approximately 350 roles) leave, although we expect this to be closer to 300 with redeployments," Shu said in a statement released by Deliveroo.
Shu added that the company operates in a highly competitive industry and faces a difficult consumer environment in most of its markets.
"We are experiencing record high inflation, rising interest rates, an energy crisis and fears of a recession in the UK. We have to run our business in the most efficient way possible to withstand these challenges, and take a hard look at our cost base," the statement added.
The goal of staff cuts, Shu said, is to ensure a permanent shift toward greater efficiency, less friction in the company's structures and faster decision-making to allow it to navigate an uncertain period.
The United Kingdom, along with other Western countries, has been facing a massive energy crisis and inflation as part of the post-pandemic global economic recession. The situation worsened with the hostilities in Ukraine and Western sanctions against Moscow which disrupted supply chains.
The UK's annual inflation reached a 41-year high of 11.1% in October 2022, and has since slowed down insignificantly. In November, the Bank of England raised its interest rate by 75 basis points to 3% per annum, the largest single increase in 33 years. The regulator also said that the UK economy had entered a recession expected to last until the second half of 2024.
