As per recent reports, Meesho, India’s fastest growing internet commerce company, reportedly is known to have closed its supermarket chain Superstore in more than 90 percent of Indian towns, leading to the loss of several jobs. Not just that, Meesho Superstore was available in six states Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Maharashtra, Gujrat as well as Karnataka.
After the stores were closed, it has been said that nearly 300 employees lost their employment. However, the business declined to comment on the same. Also, for individuals who were let go, Meesho provided two months’ salary as severance pay, as a gesture of goodwill.
In other words, after rebranding Farmigo to a superstore to highlight its continued aim to fulfill consumer demand for daily essentials in Tier 2 markets and beyond, Meesho is said to have laid off 150 employees in the same month, mostly from Farmigo.
In addition to this, it had at the time focused on integrating its grocery business within the core application. Visit Autrey, Founder, and CEO, of Meesho, had stated this at the time. “What started as a pilot in Karnataka is now seeing positive traction across six states. Driven by our user-first mindset, the integration will provide millions of Meesho users a unified shopping experience, while allowing us to drive stronger synergies across areas such as customer acquisition, technology, and product and talent,” he had said in the statement.
As noted in a report, Meesho is said to have offered a two-month salary as a severance package to the laid off-on-role employees. Moreover, the company has also absorbed some of the on-roll employees in its core business. Furthermore, as per most of the employees who were fired, low revenue and a high cash burn were the two major reasons behind the company’s move to shy away from the venture and end operations in most of the cities.
“The business was not working right. There was no money coming in, this is why they decided to shut operations in most of the cities,” one of the sources told the media organization.
“We were burning a lot of money for this business. Meesho started business in six states without proper planning. The supply chain was an issue, and so was the logistics,” another source added.
Lastly, as mentioned in a report by news18, Meesho launched a pilot in Karnataka to make online grocery shopping affordable, and the company aimed to make Superstore available in 12 states by the end of 2022.
Reading so far, I hope you must have gotten a fair insight into Meesho shutting down its grocery Superstore, and laying off 300 employees, and by now I believe you will be able to decide on your own whether or not you think it was the right thing to do and whether or not you think will be their next move.
In conclusion, what are your thoughts on Meesho shutting down the grocery arm ‘Superstore’, and laying off 300 employees? Do let us know in the comments area below. To know more about such reports, do check out other articles we have on our website. Thank you for your time & if you found our content informative, do share it with your investor friends!
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