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French food delivery startupEpicerywill cease operations Tuesday , after one last vacation season hurrah for its guest and the local food business that were using the program during its nine years in business in telephone exchange for a 25 % commission .
In a content announce the decision to customers earlier this month , Epicery ’s team said that it was “ the result of the economical and fiscal challenges we have been facing for several month , and which , despite our best attempt , we have been unable to overcome . ”
With a focussing on premium groceries and local deliveries , Epicery suffer when splashiness made customer rethink their solid food spending . Even after lay off operations in some cities , it hada negative EBITDA of -€4.69 million in 2023 , on sales of € 2.57 million .
Before these difficulties , however , the inauguration make unexpected highs when France went into lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic . It was still turn on that undulation in later 2021 when Geopost / DPDgroup , the express parcel manner of speaking branch of Groupe La Poste , which cover France ’s interior postal service , took a absolute majority shareholding in the party .
The corporate confederation made gumption at the clock time : Geopost was also an investor in last - land mile delivery inspection and repair Stuart , of which Epicery was a leaden user . But in recent months , La Poste cut tie with several startups itpreviously invested in , and in particular , sell Stuartata important deprivation .
In a statement share with TechCrunch , Geopost stated that the decision was made “ following an in - depth analysis of [ Epicery ’s ] fiscal and operating performance ” leading to the conclusion that “ the subsidiary ’s short- and medium - term profitableness has been severely impacted by development in the food delivery marketplace , a gradual post - COVID takings to direct consumption from local shops , and inviolable contender in the catering segment . ”
intellectual nourishment delivery in France in 2024 look immensely unlike compare to Epicery ’s first year ( it launched in 2016 ) . At the fourth dimension , its competitors included Take Eat Easy , whichceased operations in 2016 , but Deliveroo and Uber Eats were nowhere in pile , and warm Commerce Department had n’t run short through its rise and fall . While Cajoo , Flink , Gopuff , and Gorillasno longer operate in France , their selling front was operose to escape for quite a while .
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In compare , Epicery ’s scale and visibility were always modest . It had some 25,000 recurring customer , buying from some 1,100 local shops , mostly in Paris and Lyon after it scaled back on its national expanding upon . This could have made sentience as a standalone , lifestyle business , but arguably less so as a VC - backed one , and even less so as part of a large radical where numbers like these barely move the phonograph needle , especially with the Stuart synergism gone .
Epicery co - beginner and CEO Édouard Morhange was n’t able to annotate on strategic aspects due to a non - disclosure correspondence . In a personal program line , however , he commented on Epicery ’s legacy . “ I ’m very proud to have introduced local retailers to ecommerce over the preceding 10 years , and I ’m confident that they ’ll extend to develop their digital cut-rate sale over the coming days . ”
Morhange will stay active in the food sector , saying he ’s currently function on “ an ambitious novel model that will turn on the nutrient industry to pursue its digitalisation in France and afield . ” As for Epicery ’s employees , Geopost aver that each of them will receive “ sustenance from the 60 minutes teams to discuss opportunity within the Group or to help them find a line of work . ”
French enterpriser Nicolas Machard , whose food marketplacePourdebonisalso a subsidiary of Geopost , said he ’s convinced that Epicery ’s employee will soon land Modern function . He ’s also positive that Geopost and Pourdebon are still a capital fit , mission - fresh and economically . Not only is Pourdebon a heavy user of Geopost ’s solid food delivery service Chronofresh , but it is also on track to reach profitability in 2027 , and will in all probability ferment on reaching that milepost earlier .
Epicery did n’t care to make the math work on the profitability front , but it sometimes brought up to 10 % or even 20 % in gross sales to local workshop it work with . harmonize to Elsa Hermal , who co - found Epicery with Morhange and VC Marc Menasé before leaving operations in 2019 , this was a very important milestone .
“ What ’s marvelous , and what ’s very important to me , is that what we assure [ shop class possessor ] at the very beginning , and what took us a tenacious time to achieve , has now become an important part of their business , ” say Hermal , who ’s now a job coach and encroachment investorthrough clime fund Satgana .
As an investor , Hermal knows that Epicery was operating in a complex niche , but does n’t think it ’s a no - go . “ Logistics businesses are complicated and challenging in term of metrics , but that does n’t mean it ca n’t be done . ” Now that local businesses have had a taste of this , and in a setting where every sale counts , it would n’t be too surprising to see an Epicery - like model make a comeback at some point .
