Done with super-fast delivery of groceries? Flash courier Gorillas may have already left Antwerp (Antwerp)
The flash courier’s blitz career may already be over in Antwerp. Gorillas who deliver groceries at home within ten minutes of ordering leave our country. Ever since the introduction of Gorillas a year ago, questions about how the super-fast service could ever have been made.
Coffee, vegetables, spaghetti or beer: if you want to buy some food quickly without leaving home, you can place your order on the Gorillas app and receive it within ten minutes. And that for 1,8 delivery costs and with product prices that are with the traditional supermarkets.
Half of official personnel affairs
Gorillas will start in Antwerp in June 2021. The couriers on electric bicycles only serve the center of the city, from the Exhibition District on the Kiel to the Eilandje and part of Borgerhout. They pick up the products in one of their two depots, on the Ankerrui and close to the old court of justice. At the beginning of this year, Gorillas announced an extensive collaboration with supermarket chain Jumbo, which had even bought in to boost its e-commerce.
But now the beautiful song seems to have already been sung. The German delivery man is going to lay off half of all its international office staff, about three hundred people, and together an exit from four countries, including Belgium. Gorillas, employing around 15,000 people worldwide, are retreating into its main markets. Germany, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States together account for 90% of the turnover.
Logcom bubble
For transport economist Roel Gevaers (UAntwerp), this scenario is not a complete surprise. “We’ve been talking about the logcom bubble“, he says. A reference to the dot-com bubble in the 1990s, when a lot of promises went upside down one by one.
“We have also seen recent hundreds of millions of euros in investments from parcel suppliers, e-commerce companies and other new players such as Gorillas, including legume hulls. But when that flow dried up, like it does now, you knew there would have to be some tough decisions.”
Brussels and Antwerp
Gorillas is only active in Belgium in Brussels and Antwerp. “It has only made limited investments here compared to other countries and in terms of turnover we are nothing compared to the overall picture. If you only compare the cost of hourly wages to the number of deliveries – Gorillas works with permanent employees and not through entrepreneurs – you know that with current prices it could never become profitable here,” says Gevaers.
Supermarket chain Jumbo thinks it is too early to respond because Gorillas’ intentions are “still under consideration”. Purchase and customers Gorillas has in Antwerp, the company does not disclose.