Zomato starts layoffs amid plan to cut 4% of staff, calls it ‘regular churn’

Gurugram-based food delivery platform Zomato has reportedly started laying off employees in a cost-cutting drive. The news comes within days of global layoffs at Twitter, Meta, and Amazon.

A Moneycontrol report said Zomato has laid off at least 100 employees across product, tech, catalogue, and marketing departments this week. Only the people in the supply chain remain unaffected.

The firm reportedly plans to lay off at least 4% of its workforce in roles that are now “redundant,” according to a source quoted by Moneycontrol.

“These employees who were mostly from mid-to-senior roles (and) were working when the product was being revamped. Now that the product work is over, they have been let go,” the report quoted the source as saying.

Top execs continue to leave

Notably, the layoffs come soon after three top-level exits from the company in as many weeks. Co-founder Mohit Gupta stepped down on Friday after a four-and-a-half-year stint, following the departures of new initiatives head Rahul Ganjoo and intercity head Siddharth Jhawar.

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Over the past month, tech firms Twitter, Meta, and Amazon have laid off 25,000 employees globally to cut costs as the world stares at a possible economic recession. Many startups have been laying off employees as well to stay afloat.

Another source told the Moneycontrol that Deepinder Goyal, founder and CEO of Zomato, held a meeting a few days ago in which he hinted at job cuts across departments that were not performing well. A few account managers dealing with cloud kitchens have reportedly been replaced already.

“Regular churn”

However, a Zomato spokesperson reportedly said, “There has been a regular performance-based churn of under 3% of our workforce; there’s nothing more to it.” Zomato had around 3,800 employees before the layoffs.

The company had laid off 520 employees, or 13% of its staff, in May 2020 following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Zomato reported a net loss of Rs 250.8 crore in the July-September quarter, down from Rs 434.9 crore year-on-year. Revenue from operations rose by 62% to Rs 1,661.3 crore from ₹1,024.2 crore a year ago. Total expenses rose to Rs 2,091.3 crore during the quarter concerned, from Rs 1,601.5 crore a year ago.

Zomato shares were priced at Rs 61.15 each, down 0.89%, at the end of trading hours on Friday.

(With agency inputs)