Amazon to pull down shutters in food-delivery business in India on Dec 29

Amazon Food had onboarded 3,000 partners including QSR brands such as McDonald's and Domino's Pizza; some 25 people working on the project have all have been absorbed by the company

Amazon India has decided to shut its food delivery business on December 29 this year, according to a letter sent by the e-commerce giant to its restaurant partners. This follows its recent decision to shut down its edtech offering in India from August 2023.

"After a careful evaluation, we have decided to discontinue Amazon Food from December 29, 2022. This decision means that you will no longer get orders from customers via Amazon Food after this date. You will continue to receive orders till then and we expect you to continue fulfilling those orders," Amazon told its restaurant partners.

Amazon Food had onboarded about 3,000 restaurant partners including quick-service restaurant brands such as McDonald’s and Domino's Pizza, according to the sources. Around 25 people working on the project have all been absorbed by the company.

"As part of our annual operating planning review process, we have decided to discontinue Amazon Food, our pilot food delivery business in Bengaluru,” said an Amazon spokesperson. “We don’t take these decisions lightly. We are discontinuing these programmes in a phased manner to take care of current customers and partners and are supporting our affected employees during this transition.”

Amazon announced its entry into online food delivery in India in May 2020, at a time the country was still going through the lockdown to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. The service was initially launched in areas with select pin codes in Bengaluru. In March 2021, the service was available across 62 pin-codes covering key localities in Bengaluru. The company was learnt to be mulling and scaling it up to other cities.

Sameer Khetarpal, who was director for category management, Amazon India, had said that with the expansion of Amazon Food in Bengaluru, the firm continued in its endeavour to offer unmatched convenience and value while being a part of their everyday lives. In May this year, Jubilant FoodWorks appointed Sameer Khetarpal as CEO and managing director effective from September 5, this year.

Amazon’s foray into food delivery had put it in direct competition with established local players including Swiggy and Zomato. Customers in Bengaluru could choose cuisines and dishes like Indian, Chinese, Italian, biryani, burgers and desserts from about 3,000 restaurants and cloud kitchens that adhere to strict safety protocols.  It had partnered with several restaurants and cloud kitchens such as Burger King, Behrouz Biryani, Faasos, Chai Point, Freshmenu and Adiga’s. The firm had initially also partnered with restaurant chains such as the California Burrito and Keventers and five-star hotel chains like the Radisson and Marriott.

Amazon is shutting down the food delivery offering when the company is laying off employees as part of the annual operating planning review process. However, the company didn’t specify the number of jobs that would be cut in India. According to the sources, attempts would be made to absorb as many within the different business units of the company as possible. Only those for whom it is unable to find a good fit would be asked to go, the sources said. Amazon will cut jobs again worldwide in early 2023, said chief executive officer Andy Jassy in a memo to employees last week.

Amazon said on Thursday it will shut down its edtech offering in India from August 2023 and refund the full fees to those enrolled in the current academic batch. The firm launched Amazon Academy in January 2021 to cater to students preparing for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) to engineering colleges. The move enabled it to take on top edtech companies such as Byju’s, Unacademy, Vedantu and traditional education institutes and tap the country's $180-billion education sector which has gone online to adapt to the new reality.