Food delivery service Deliveroo has announced it will "immediately" cease operations in Australia after seven years.
In some sad news for lovers of food delivery, Deliveroo has suddenly announced it is quitting the Australian market, effective immediately.
A sudden announcement dropped in subscribers’ inboxes this afternoon and on social media with a statement confirming that the UK-headquartered company will “permanently cease trading immediately”. Quite literally, by the time the statement landed, the mobile app had already stopped taking food orders across the nation.
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“We have today made the sad announcement that we are leaving Australia,” the company said in an email to clients.
“This has been a difficult decision to make. We have enjoyed serving you the amazing food that Australia is known for, working with thousands of brilliant restaurants and riders.”
The platform landed in Australia back in 2015, with the company citing a highly competitive market and a “challenging economic conditions, which requires us to take difficult decisions” for its demise.
The company currently employs around 15,000 riders in Australia, and will now leave thousands of local restaurants out in the cold. Already we’ve seen statements from local restaurants, announcing the flow on effect this will have for local businesses just beginning to get back on their feet.
“We have just been informed via email that our delivery partner Deliveroo has been placed into liquidation and have immediately ceased operations Australia-wide, citing difficult economic conditions,” Geelong burger joint OK Smash said today.
“On the back on Covid19 and inflation this will impact our businesses greatly. We are working on engaging a new delivery partner and hope to be back delivering soon.”
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, a spokesperson for Deliveroo Australia said any driver who had completed a delivery in the past three months was eligible for four weeks of compensation pay. The compensation pay will be calculated according to the driver’s average weekly earnings across the past 12 months, the spokesperson said.
It is not yet known if customers’ membership fees will be reimbursed.
