Zomato not shutting but rebranding 10-minute food delivery service
After several reports suggested that Zomato was shutting down its ambitious 10-minute food delivery service called ‘Zomato Instant’, the food aggregator came up with a clarification. Zomato told CNBC-TV18 that it is not winding down the instant food delivery business and that no employee has been fired because of that. Instead, the company is reportedly planning to rebrand the business.
“Instant is not shutting down. We are working on a new menu with our partners and rebranding the business. All finishing stations remain intact, and no people are impacted by this decision,” Zomato was quoted as saying.
Soon after the rival Swiggy announced that it would fire 380 employees, rumours were rife that Zomato is also planning to make a similar move to lay off some of the workforce. This is despite the new job advertisement posted by Zomato co-founder and chief executive Deepinder Goyal. Zomato is hiring for 800 positions across different roles, including the role of Chief of Staff to CEO, which the advertisement mentioned would be a 24×7 job and where “the traditional employee mindset of work-life balance won’t work.”
As for Zomato Instant, the ambitious food delivery service launched last year in March would deliver food orders in less than the current average delivery time of 30 minutes. The programme was launched amid huge criticism, including the kind of pressure this service would put on delivery executives, to which Goyal came up with justifications.
In a post dated March 21, 2022, Goyal wrote, “Customers are increasingly demanding quicker answers to their needs. They don’t want to plan, and they don’t want to wait…. I started feeling that the 30-minute average delivery time by Zomato is too slow, and will soon have to become obsolete. If we don’t make it obsolete, someone else will.”
Under the service, Zomato would deliver items from a list of 20-30 most frequently ordered food items for an area by setting up finishing stations in a location from where the deliveries could be made in 10 minutes. These finishing stations would contain pre-mixed versions of those food items sourced from specific restaurants in the vicinity.
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