After 20 years delivering meals and ad campaigns with Snoop Dogg and Katy Perry, somebody said Menulog would close its Australian operations.
The popular food-delivery service will stop trading on November 26, the company announced on Wednesday, in a move that will cut 120 jobs and reduce competition in the market.
The Transport Workers Union said the closure would come as a shock to delivery workers, who had been fighting for better employment conditions.
The announcement also follows the closure of Deliveroo in 2022 and Foodora in 2018, and despite growth in the food-delivery market.
Menulog, which was founded in Sydney in 2006, was one of Australia’s most popular food-delivery apps, according to Roy Morgan, second only to UberEats in 2022.
The decision to close the business had been challenging, Menulog managing director Morten Belling said, and the two-week notice of its closure was designed to allow customers to redeem vouchers and credits.
“Today is a tough day for the Menulog business and I would like to reassure everyone this decision was not taken lightly,” he said.
“Our priority now is to support our customers, couriers and partners.”
The company, which was acquired by Dutch firm Just Eat Takeaway.com, will offer some of its delivery couriers four-week redundancy payouts.
The news would come as a shock to thousands of couriers, Transport Workers’ Union national secretary Michael Kaine said, and highlighted employment instability in the industry.
“We will be working to ensure those workers receive pay for their work and fair exit payments over the coming weeks,” he said.
“In the gig economy, workers are still languishing with below-minimum wage rates, no sick leave or superannuation and deadly pressure to rush to make a living and avoid being deactivated.”
The federal government introduced Closing Loopholes laws in 2024 that introduced minimum standards for employee-like workers, and allowed the Fair Work Commission to set minimum standards for gig economy workers.
Remaining delivery services should back the changes urgently, Mr Kaine said, to ensure couriers have confidence in their employment conditions.
“DoorDash, Uber Eats, Hungry Panda and Easi now need to come to the table to ensure we get standards in place as soon as possible,” he said.
Menulog’s closure will see the departure of the only food-delivery service that began in Australia, and comes after the withdrawal of Deliveroo in November 2022 that also impacted 120 jobs.
The closures come despite growth in the market, with Statista reporting more than 8.3 million Australians used food-delivery services in 2024 and predictions from Mordor Intelligence that the food service market would grow by 11.45 per cent annually.
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