Swiggy lays off 380 employees, CEO says 'very difficult decision': Report

CEO Sriharsha Majety said the growth rate has slowed down more than the company's projections

 

Food aggregator Swiggy laid off 380 employees on Friday, a report by Business Today (BT) said. In a letter to the employees, the company's chief executive officer (CEO) Sriharsha Majety said that it is a "very difficult decision".

"We're implementing a very difficult decision to reduce the size of our team as a part of a restructuring exercise. In this process, we will be bidding goodbye to 380 talented Swiggsters," he said in a letter to the employees, according to BT. 

"While our cash reserves allow us to be fundamentally well positioned to weather harsh circumstances, we cannot make this a crutch and must continue identifying efficiencies to secure our long-term."

He also said the growth rate had slowed down more than the company's projections. He added, "Our overhiring is a case of poor judgment, and I should've done better here." 

Earlier reports that surfaced in December said that Swiggy might lay off more than 250 employees, or up to 5 per cent of its workforce, starting January.

The total number of layoff employees is set to go further up, according to IANS, after the completion of the performance cycle in October. The company employs close to 6,000 workers.

In an earlier statement, Swiggy had said there were no layoffs, and with every performance cycle, "we expect exits based on performance".

The online food delivery platform's losses doubled to Rs 3,629 crore in FY22 compared to Rs 1,617 crore in the last fiscal year.

Total expenses went up 131 per cent to Rs 9,574.5 crore in FY22, according to its annual financial statement with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

Swiggy's revenue grew 2.2 times to Rs 5,705 crore during FY22 as opposed to Rs 2,547 crore in FY21.

In November last year, global brokerage firm Jefferies said that Swiggy was fast losing market share to its rival Zomato despite offering heavy discounts.