Foodpanda will stop operating its platform, food and grocery delivery services in Thailand on May 23, its parent company Delivery Hero announced on Wednesday.
The decision is in line with Delivery Hero’s focus on “optimising its geostrategy” — as shown by the previous discontinuation of operations in countries such as Denmark, Ghana, Slovakia and Slovenia, the Berlin-based company said in a statement.
Delivery Hero will continue concentrating efforts in other parts of Asia Pacific where the group sees greater returns, it added.
The company said its Thailand-based regional team, which provides services such as marketing and human resources operations for the Asia-Pacific region, would continue to operate as usual.
“Delivery Hero thanks its employees, customers, partners and riders in Thailand and is committed to supporting them during the transition period,” the statement added.
Foodpanda had been struggling in the hyper-competitive Thai food delivery market, with a share just under 15%, a distant third behind Lineman Wongnai (44%) and GrabFood (39.4%).
In a market valued at an estimated 86 billion baht, only GrabFood has begun to report a modest profit. According to the business analytics firm Creden Data, Foodpanda had accumulated net losses of 13.8 billion baht from 2014-23.
Delivery Hero tried to sell part of the Foodpanda business in Southeast Asia last year but was unable to reach an agreement with prospective buyers.
It did not identify the prospective buyer but earlier reports indicated that Singapore-based Grab was the suitor. Meituan of China was also said to have been exploring a potential acquisition of Foodpanda to give itself a footprint in Southeast Asia.
Source: Bangkok Post