Rapid delivery service Getir announces exit from Netherlands

Rapid grocery delivery service Getir is leaving the Netherlands. As is its subsidiary, Gorillas, the company announced on Monday. The departure leaves Flink as the only rapid grocery deliverer in the country.

Getir is also leaving Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. “Getir generates only seven percent of its revenues from the markets it is exiting; this decision will allow Getir to focus its financial resources on Turkey.”

The Turkish company completed an investment round last week. “Getir will utilize these funds to bolster its competitive position in its core food and grocery delivery businesses in Turkey,” it said. The company is winding down Gorillas, which it acquired for 1.1 billion euros at the end of 2022.

Getir has been under pressure for some time. In August last year, the company laid off about 10 percent of its total workforce, amounting to about 2,500 jobs disappearing. It also left the Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian markets.

Rapid delivery services, which offered grocery deliveries within minutes, grew like wildfire in the Netherlands during the pandemic. Dutch municipalities started setting limits and banishing their distribution points to commercial areas, among other things. That put pressure on their business model. Combined with the past years’ high inflation leading to fewer orders, the companies started disappearing one by one.

The British Zapp was the first to disappear from the Netherlands. At the end of 2022, Getir took over competitor Gorillas, whose company value had halved in a year. A year and a half later, those two are also leaving. The Dutch Flink is now the only one left.