Deliveroo, a platform with around 15,000 delivery riders in Australia, has announced that the company has been put into Voluntary Administration:
Dear Customer,
We have today made the sad announcement that we are leaving Australia. This has been a difficult decision to make,’ the statement said.
We have enjoyed serving you the amazing food that Australia is known for, working with thousands of brilliant restaurants and riders.
Deliveroo, like all other companies, is now doing business in challenging economic conditions, which requires us to take difficult decisions.
‘We always aim to deliver the best possible service for our consumers wherever we operate, and if we cannot do that we will be prepared to review our position.
‘In Australia, we have concluded that achieving a sustainable position of leadership in the market is not possible without a disproportionate level of investment which would have highly uncertain returns.
On the basis of this decision, Deliveroo Australia has been placed into administration. The director of Deliveroo Australia has appointed Michael Korda, Andrew Knight and Craig Shepard of KordaMentha as voluntary administrators. To find out more, including information for creditors, please visit click here. You will receive further communications from the Administrators shortly.
What this means for you
Deliveroo Australia has ceased operations, meaning you can no longer place orders on Deliveroo in Australia.
You will still be able to access your customer account for up to 6 months from this date onwards. After this period your customer account will be closed. Within this period while your account is open, you can download your customer information.
Thank you for ordering with Deliveroo.
For any further information, please visit the administrators’ website at: https://kordamentha.com/creditors
We want to thank you again for using Deliveroo.
The Deliveroo Team
While Deliveroo was food related and on-demand, it’s early demise is interesting to compare to the 140 years of home delivery by Aussie newsagents. Of course, what newsagents delivered was completely different to the on-demand food-based Deliveroo situation.
This home delivery / last mile / on-demand delivery space is in for a big shake-up. And, no, I don’t see a path back into that space for newsagents. We are better off focussing on the freedom of retail, especially niche local retail.
On the last-mile though, Milkrun appears to be the only business standing in on-demand groceries. Several startups have closed in recent months after pouring through tens of millions of dollars.
In the food space, deliver was fourth in size in Australia. Our marketplace size and geography make this a far more difficult territory than the population concentrated major cuties of the US and UK.
Menulog will be next, running on the same model as Deliveroo. Uber and Doordash will be the two left standing.