SUMMARY
50K-60K new food delivery positions open up by the end of the ongoing financial year
The entry of Amazon into foodtech will create more jobs
Restaurants are currently discontent with online food service providers over discounting practices
As foodtech’s growth continues unabated in India, and ecommerce giant Amazon looks for an entrance into the space, the sector will reportedly see a spurt in hiring this year.
An ET report said that aggressive expansion by incumbents Swiggy and Zomato will see 50K-60K new food delivery positions open up by the end of the ongoing financial year.
RedSeer, a market research and advisory firm, said that 560,000 people are likely to be part of online food delivery by March 31 next year, compared to about 500,000 currently. Earlier in July RedSeer had said that foodtech’s growth had outstripped that of cab-hailing apps in terms of volumes in India.
Foodtech hiring for delivery staff grew from 25,000 in 2016 to 250,000 in 2018 and are at double those levels currently, Rohan Agarwal, engagement manager at RedSeer, told ET.
“The entry of Amazon will create more jobs, and it is expected that players like Swiggy and Zomato will increase hiring to maintain their position,” Yeshab Giri, vice president, – RT and specialties, Randstad India reportedly said.
The news comes in the face of continued discontent from restaurant partners. The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) on Monday wrote to Swiggy, Zomato, Uber Eats and Food Panda flagging “serious concerns” over alleged “lack of transparency, deep discounting and abuse of dominant position by online delivery aggregators”.
In separate letters to the four entities, the restaurant association flagged issues such as deep discounting, lack of a standard commission rate or contract and the lack of transparency in sharing customer data with restaurants. The association says that in the current environment, deep discounts ranging from 30% to 70% are being deployed all year, which has been hindering the profitable growth for restaurants and distorting the market.
NRAI’s letter has also raised concerns on the lack of unified commission structures across restaurants. According to a senior member of the association, this creates a distortion in the way different restaurants are charged. The body has asked aggregators to build a more standardised and structured contract and commission system.
Each restaurant is charged differently and have been given different guidelines according to their business growth and financial status. This allows the FSAs to personalise each contract to get more profit out of the restaurants. Uniform contract regulations look to tackle this.
