Jobs in Manchester have been put at risk after takeaway delivery firm Deliveroo revealed plans to cut hundreds of roles.
The company's founder told staff about 350 jobs, or 9% of its workforce, could be made redundant.
Deliveroo said roles at all levels will be impacted, but it hopes the job losses will be closer to 300 after redeploying affected staff to other roles.
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The group said the move follows aggressive hiring in recent years amid the Covid boom in demand for takeaways, while it also needs to "go further" it putting itself on the path to profitability.
It is understood the majority of the cuts will affect UK-based employees. Founder and chief executive Will Shu said: "I’m sorry that we have to do this.
"Some of our close friends and talented colleagues will leave Deliveroo as part of this and it pains me that we have to do it.
"I have been through one of these processes once before. I said then that it was the hardest thing I’d ever done, and this is just as bad. But however much it pains me, I know it’s nothing compared to how those impacted will be feeling. We will do everything to support you."
The move comes after Deliveroo opened a new office in the centre of Manchester in February 2022 after tripling its headcount in the city over the previous 12 months.
Mr Shu added: "We operate in a highly competitive industry, and at the same time we are also in a difficult consumer environment in most of our markets.
"We are experiencing record high inflation, rising interest rates, an energy crisis and fears of a recession in the UK. "We have to run our business in the most efficient way possible to withstand these challenges, and take a hard look at our cost base.
"In recent years we grew our headcount very quickly. This was a response to unprecedented growth rates supported by Covid-related tailwinds. By contrast, we now face serious and unforeseen economic headwinds.
"We have also recently exited markets, meaning we do not require the same size workforce to support our operations. Quite bluntly, our fixed cost base is too big for our business."
Deliveroo has rapidly expanded in recent years amid growing demand for rapid delivery, which was accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic.
However, growth has stalled more recently as customers have returned to restaurants and grocery shops. Total order numbers fell 2% across the group to 75.1 million in the final three months of 2022, the firm said last month.
Shares in Deliveroo were 2.5% lower at 86.73p on Thursday afternoon.
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