Food and groceries delivery company Honestbee has revealed that it will be suspending and stopping some of its operations across Asia, while cutting 10 per cent of its global staff, reported the Straits Times.
According to a company spokesperson, Honestbee will be shutting down services in Hong Kong and Indonesia and is temporarily suspending operations in the Philippines and Japan. Meanwhile, the company’s food delivery service will cease in Thailand.
These steps were taken in an effort to “help the company focus and realign its regional business”.
Source: The Nation
Prior to this, Honestbee reportedly employed 1,000 staff across its 8 markets.
Additionally, Tech Crunch also reported that the startup’s CEO Joel Sng was allegedly let go, based on information from two sources. Sng reportedly cleared his desk on 30th April.
Sng co-founded Honestbee along with Isaac Tay and Jonathan Low in 2015. While Tay left the company back in 2018, it was reported that Low would remain in Honestbee to run its engineering team.
However, according to Vulcan Post, an anonymous source shared a screenshot of an email Sng sent to all Honestbee staff saying that the rumour of him being fired was “fake news”.
Source: Vulcan Post
Reports of Sng being let go have yet to be officially addressed by Honestbee.
The company also issued a statement addressing reports that it has been delaying payroll and that it owed money to suppliers, and was quoted by the Straits Times as saying,
“We would like to stress that this is untrue. We will ensure that all employees across all markets, including Singapore, are paid in a timely manner. In addition, we are also committed to fulfilling our financial obligations to all (contractors), partners and vendors.”
Stay tuned for more updates on this developing story.
Also read: PayPal M’sia to Shut Down Office in April 2019, All Employees to Be Affected By Closure
