Takeaway delivery platform Deliverooo has announced it is to cut roughly 350 jobs, equivalent to about 9% of the company’s employees.

Jobs across the Deliveroo business will be impacted, founder and chief executive Will Shu told staff, but it is understood that UK staff will be most affected by the losses.

Some employees will be moved to different areas of the business in an effort to keep losses to roughly 300 roles while redundancy process is to begin across the company.

The company head said Deliveroo needed to “go further” to make the company profitable as the COVID-era boom in takeaway orders subsides on the platform.

Competition in the delivery sector and global economic conditions have been blamed for the cuts. “We operate in a highly competitive industry, and at the same time we are also in a difficult consumer environment in most of our markets,” Mr Shu said.

“We are experiencing record high inflation, rising interest rates, an energy crisis and fears of a recession in the UK.”

As with many tech-centric companies and start-ups Deliveroo said it hired rapidly during the pandemic and is now downsizing. “In recent years we grew our headcount very quickly. This was a response to unprecedented growth rates supported by Covid-related tailwinds,” Mr Shu added.

Deliveroo uses gig economy workers to deliver takeaways – who are not classed as employees and so will not be part of the headcount cull.

Related posts:

Bereaved families paint mural of almost 150,000 red hearts to represent COVID-19 victims Sir Jeffrey Donaldson enters race to succeed Arlene Foster as DUP leader Boy found dead in river in Bridgend is named NHS COVID-19 app being updated to ping fewer people to isolate Forecasters warn of flooding as storms and torrential downpours move in British special forces investigating suspected Iranian oil tanker drone attack Hate crime investigation as men filmed spitting at bus full of Jewish passengers Man pleads not guilty to cutting throats of girlfriend and associate Syrian and Afghan refugees ‘on first deportation flight to Rwanda’ Final preparations under way for Queen’s historic Platinum Jubilee celebrations Truss to set out plan to help households and businesses with soaring energy costs Molly Russell coroner urges social media firms to take action following teen’s death