Grubhub Cuts 20% of Staff Following Purchase by Wonder

Weeks after being acquired by another food delivery platform, Grubhub is eliminating around 500 jobs.

The company was sold last year by European firm Just Eat Takeaway to Wonder, a deal that was finalized in January.

Now the two companies are working on aligning their businesses, Grubhub CEO Howard Migdal said in a message to employees posted to the company website Friday (Feb. 28).

“In order to achieve our ambition, we must prioritize the right work and execute with speed and conviction by reducing management layers, bringing leaders closer to the business, and removing duplication,” Migdal said.

“As a result, we’ve made the difficult decision to eliminate approximately 500 positions at Grubhub. These changes span all teams as we begin to integrate functions with Wonder.”

A report by Reuters noted that Grubhub had 2,220 full-time workers last year, meaning the job cuts account for more than a fifth of the company’s staff.

Just Eat announced in November of last year that it had sold Grubhub to Wonder for $650 million, a steep loss considering the company originally paid $7.3 billion for Grubhub in 2021.

“The sale of Grubhub to Wonder will increase the cash generation capabilities of Just Eat Takeaway.com and will accelerate our growth,” Just Eat founder and CEO Jitse Groen said last year. “This deal delivers the right home for Grubhub and its employees.”

PYMNTS wrote last year about efforts by companies such as Wonder to become a one-stop food provider. In the case of Wonder, that meant offering omnichannel food halls and acquiring meal kit company Blue Apron to develop a “mealtime super app.”

Wonder Chief Growth and Marketing Officer Daniel Shlossman said that the company’s partnership with Walmart allows it to tie restaurant ordering opportunities to consumers’ grocery and retail shopping habits.

“We do expect customers to place orders maybe when they are heading into the Walmart, and the food is going to be right there ready for them for pickup when they’re leaving,” he said. “We also see people that are maybe in the middle of running errands, and they’ve just made their Walmart run, and they can stop off and have a bite before they head to their next destination.”

News of the layoffs at Grubhub came days after Just Eat Takeaway was sold to tech investor Prosus for around $4.3 billion, a deal that makes the Dutch platform into a private company.