UK food delivery app to axe more than 1,700 jobs

Food delivery platform Just Eat Takeaway unveiled plans Tuesday to axe more than 1,700 mostly courier jobs in Britain, as it slashes costs in the wake of huge annual losses.

The UK business "is reorganising and simplifying its delivery operation as part of the ongoing goal of improving efficiency", it said in a statement emailed to AFP.

"As part of this process we have proposed to transition away from the worker model for couriers" in Britain, it added.

Just Eat Takeaway said its UK division will stop employing its own couriers -- and instead will only use self-employed gig economy workers.

Approximately 170 staff in its UK operations team will also be affected by the overhaul, but some could be redeployed.

Just Eat Takeaway had revealed earlier this month that acquisition writedowns, the souring economic climate and rising interest rates sparked a massive loss of about 5.7 billion euros ($6.1 billion) last year.

The Amsterdam-based company was created in 2020 after Dutch online service Takeaway.com gobbled up Britain's Just Eat, and business subsequently boomed on the back of the Covid pandemic-fuelled surge in home delivery, which has since subsided.

The group has also put Grubhub up for sale as it seeks to focus on Europe, having already slashed the value of the US subsidiary it bought for $7.3 billion in 2020.