Speedy delivery scaleup Getir is rapidly shutting warehouses in the UK as it scrambles to cut costs, amid a crunch that has left it struggling to pay suppliers, according to employees at the company.
“The situation is that there is no cash,” says one employee.
Getir’s procurement lead for the UK and EU this week asked office staff in the UK to help clear out warehouses that are being shut down, according to a Slack message shared with Sifted.
A second employee tells Sifted they're concerned by the fact that Getir’s office staff have been asked to perform these tasks, given their lack of experience or training for working in warehouse environments.
Getir declined to comment.
Payment delays
The company’s cashflow problems are now being passed onto other startups, according to both sources, who say that Getir is struggling to pay its suppliers’ invoices.
“Some suppliers have been out of pocket for months,” one employee says, adding that some are now threatening to end their partnership with Getir in the hope of being paid.
The employee adds that the company is looking at new areas to cut costs by decreasing the amount of office space it rents by one floor, and cutting perks like free breakfasts.
Getir declined to answer Sifted’s questions on whether the company is attempting to raise fresh funding.
Trouble at the mill
Last month Sifted reported that Getir was preparing to leave Spain, where it has nearly 1,600 employees spread across six cities. Getir is understood to be undergoing a mass redundancy process in the country.
In June Getir announced it planned to leave France and said it had filed for bankruptcy in the country. Getir’s remaining operations are in the UK, Germany and Turkey, where the company was founded.
The speedy grocery sector — of which Getir is the largest European player — has taken a hit in the last year and a half, as consumer spending power dips and VC funding dries up. The sector saw a period of mass consolidation where Getir swallowed up smaller rivals, most notably Berlin-based Gorillas.
Getir has raised $1.8bn to date, from investors including Tiger Global, Sequoia and Mubadala.
