Ride-hailing service provider, Grab is reportedly set to let go around 360 employees. Chief executive officer and co-founder, Anthony Tan had announced the grim news in a letter to employees.
“Over the past few months, we reviewed all costs, cut back on discretionary spending, and implemented pay cuts for senior management,” Tan wrote. “In spite of all this, we recognise that we still have to become leaner as an organisation in order to tackle the challenges of the post-pandemic economy.”
“We understand this news will cause anxiety and dread. Please know that we did not come to this decision lightly. We tried everything possible to avoid this but had to accept that the difficult cuts we are making today are required, because millions depend on us for a living in this new normal,” he added.
Tan had further stated that the company will need to prepare for a long recovery period as he expects the pandemic to lead to a prolonged recession period. According to Tan, the company had been reviewing its costs and has been cutting back on discretionary spending over the last couple of months.
“Grab would be sunsetting some non-core projects, consolidating functions for greater efficiency and right-sizing teams to better match the company’s changing business needs, given the external environment,” Tan said.
“We are also doubling-down on our delivery verticals and have redeployed Grabbers to meet the increased customer demand for deliveries.
Tan had previously called the crisis, “the single biggest crisis” to ever affect the company and it has been planning for “a potential long winter”.
In May, Grab had reported that its overall revenues have been dragged down by its core ride-hailing segment due to the ongoing crisis which had forced Governments in the region to announce lockdowns.
“Grab’s total revenue was “lower than it used to be pre-Covid,” co-founder Hooi Ling Tan was quoted in a Reuters report.
