Foodpanda Pakistan CEO, Nauman Sikandar Mirza, expects the company to break even in 2023.
“We haven’t hit the breakeven yet,” said the chief of food delivery giant, Foodpanda, in an interview with Dawn News. “Pakistan is geographically spread out. So the expansion is not as cost-effective as it is in other countries.”
He said the company had grown its top line at an annualized rate of more than 50 percent over the last three years. Meanwhile, the company’s gross merchandise value is about Rs. 40 billion a year, which indicates the value of products processed for sale by the app. However, this isn’t the company’s net revenue since a significant part of it belongs to sellers on the online platform.
Mirza declined to share the company’s earnings figures or monthly sales numbers.
According to the CEO, about one-fourth of all restaurants in Pakistan use the platform’s delivery services. He said that Foodpanda owns about 60 to 65 percent of the total market share, with the rest divided up the company’s main competitors, which include Careem Now, Cheetay, and Jovi.
He said, “In terms of overall food sales, we constitute 2-4pc (including dine-in revenue). Of the food home-delivery pie, we should have a 10-15% share.”
Foodpanda has faced a number of controversies in the recent past. Its competitors submitted a complaint to the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) and alleged that the company’s loyalty agreements with restaurants were a monopolistic practice that was restricting competition in the market.
To this, he responded that the company received formal approval from the CC regarding loyalty agreements.
In addition, the platform has faced criticism over the low wages it pays its employees. “If you pay people less, they’ll stop working for you altogether. We don’t have that problem. We’re a very fair employer when it comes to paying money,” he said.
According to Mirza, a rider on average earns Rs. 30,000 a month for working eight hours a day for six days a week.
He added, “In the next two to three months, you’ll see the riders’ experience will be very different.”
Foodpanda, which was launched in 2013, employs about a total of 50,000 riders to deliver food from around 200,000 restaurants and home chefs in 50 cities.
