Barcelona-based food delivery business Glovo is today announcing layoffs that will affect 6% of its staff — 250 people will lose their jobs, with the recruitment and data departments in the Barcelona HQ being most affected.

The CEO is set to tell staff of the decision in an all-hands meeting Monday morning.

The company told Sifted the market downturn is behind the move: “The current macroeconomic situation, with rising interest rates and inflation, has impacted the purchasing power of consumers, which we noticed towards the end of 2022.”

Glovo said its rapid recent growth — which it says has seen its team size grow 40% year on year, to 3,900 people today —  had “naturally created inefficiencies”, which it now “needs to correct”. 

It said it will also reduce “non-headcount-related operational expenses” and will only be hiring for “business-critical roles through the first half of 2023.” 

The context of Glovo’s layoffs

The decision comes less than a week after Reuters reported that Glovo was fined €56.7m by the Spanish government for allegedly violating employment laws. It’s on top of a €79m fine in September 2022 for alleged violations of labour law. 

Glovo is appealing both fines and told Sifted that today’s layoffs are not connected to the penalties.

Glovo joins the growing list of European tech companies laying off staff as public markets slump and the continent slides into recession. But the scaleup — which was bought out by Berlin-based Delivery Hero at the end of 2021 — has other headaches to contend with beyond the slowdown. 

Last year the European Union raided Glovo and Delivery Hero’s offices as part of an investigation into possible breaches of anti-competition law, with insiders telling Sifted that the company’s leadership did not take antitrust rules seriously.

Tim Smith is a senior reporter at Sifted. He tweets from @timmpsmith