Just Eat also plans to cut 23 to 30 positions in support functions, to keep 41.
"We plan to refocus our employee model on a limited number of cities to seven," Meleyne Rabot, general manager of Just Eat France, told AFP in the wake of a CSE to inform staff representatives.
"It's not light hearted," she added.
In France, Just Eat currently serves 2,500 municipalities.
In 27 of them where it is present, the model is based on salaried employment, which led the company to announce at the start of 2021 that it was going to hire 4,500 couriers on permanent contracts.
Just Eat would keep deliverers on permanent contracts in Paris and its suburbs, Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Lille and Roubaix, "who represent 75% of orders and two-thirds of the workforce," said Ms. Rabot.
On the other hand, in 20 cities, including Bordeaux or Nantes in particular, the company “plans to switch from an employee model to an alternative mode of delivery” remaining to be defined.
According to the manager, at the end of the reorganization which could be effective "during the second half of 2022, the company could keep 530 deliverers on permanent contracts in France, where she recognizes that the economic situation is "more complex" than In other countries.
"Over the past two years, following the merger (between Just Eat and Takeway, editor's note), there have been significant expenses. We aim to return to profitability in the short term, I'm not saying we're going to give up the employee model", added Ms. Rabot, who specifies that the meal delivery market is "volatile and competitive".
It is notably dominated in France by Uber Eats and Deliveroo which, unlike Just Eat, have not opted for employment for their delivery fleets.
© 2022 AFP