Report Shows Food Delivery Layoffs in 2026 Surge Past 3,900

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

A new report released by TradingPlatforms has indicated that layoffs in the food and delivery sector in 2026 have risen to about 3,921 across seven different companies.

In the survey made available to Business Post, it was disclosed that the largest layoffs in the delivery sector so far came from Chinese food-delivery giant Meituan, which reportedly cut up to 2,000 positions in 2026.

The cuts have affected multiple business lines, including food delivery, instant retail and commercialisation, as Meituan restructures amid intensifying competition from Alibaba and JD.com and mounting pressure to improve profitability.

It was learned that the latest cuts came out of German food delivery platform known as HelloFresh, which recently notified that it would be closing its New Jersey site in the United States, letting go of 374 employees in the process.

In the UK, online grocery and retail technology company Ocado announced plans to cut around 1,000 jobs, equivalent to roughly 5 per cent of its global workforce, as part of a £150 million cost-cutting programme. Two-thirds of affected employees are based in the UK, with roughly half of the cuts coming from the company’s research and development departments. The company said that these cuts are intended to support costs for upcoming technology projects.

Spain-based food-delivery platform Glovo initially announced plans to cut up to 750 delivery riders across 60 cities as it scaled back operations in smaller and medium-sized markets. The company said its existing delivery model had proved inefficient and that the restructuring was necessary to protect the viability of its Spanish operations. Following negotiations with unions, however, the final agreement reduced the number of affected riders to 436, while allowing Glovo to preserve delivery services in nine cities that had initially been set to lose their entire rider workforce.

In the United States, Picnic announced cuts as the food-delivery technology company wound down its operations. The Seattle-based startup, which developed robotic systems for automating pizza preparation, had raised more than $20 million and partnered with companies including Domino’s before ultimately shutting down and selling its assets in 2026.

Food and grocery delivery sector layoffs have also been recorded outside Europe and the United States, with Egypt-based Breadfast cutting 58 positions and Israeli company GoLemon laying off 33 employees. Breadfast’s cuts came as the grocery-delivery startup streamlined its workforce following a $50 million funding round, while GoLemon’s layoffs followed the shutdown of its operations after the company was unable to secure additional funding.

Commenting on this development, an analyst at TradingPlatforms, Stanislava Savisheva, said, “As food and grocery delivery becomes increasingly intertwined with the tech sector, it is also being exposed to the same pressures that are driving mass layoff waves across the industry.

“Artificial intelligence is transforming every industry it touches, and delivery services are no exception. The technology has already begun to allow for smarter forecasting and route optimisation, as well as warehouse automation and even personnel-free customer service, which naturally comes at the cost of open roles at these companies.

“But despite this, AI is only playing a small part in what is currently driving these layoffs: weaker demand, facility closures and the push for profitability remain the main motivation behind 2026’s food and grocery delivery layoffs.”