Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic and its impact, we’ve made the decision to
reassess our 2020/2021 priorities as an organization, with a focus on sustainability and profitability, as the global economy adapts to a new normal.
As part of this ongoing strategy, we quickly realized that in order to achieve these objectives, we would have to shift our focus on markets where the situation allows for growth.
We found this difficult to do in the US (especially New York as this has unfortunately become the epicenter of the pandemic) and the UK. These remain challenging, not only due to the uncertainty of the markets’ recovery period but especially because of the risk associated with the health and safety of our colleagues.
What this means
As a result, we have made the difficult decision to suspend operations in the US and UK until further notice.
We are deeply saddened by the impact this has had on our people. This decision comes after months of consultation and open dialogue with our colleagues, a majority of them involved in the decision making process, as often as reasonably possible.
Always part of the Kitopian family, we thank them for bringing their talents and the best versions of themselves to Kitopi, and wish them the best of luck for the future.
The future
The US and UK will remain a strategic market for us and we will continue to monitor the situation closely.
A major focus will be to work closer than ever before with our restaurant and delivery partners to further our mission of powering the food economy and continue investing in enhanced health and safety measures.
While we have already started to expand into new kitchens in the last few weeks in the UAE and KSA, a big focus will also remain on growing our groceries vertical www.shopkitopi.com which has seen a substantial increase of customers, since its launch, a little over a month ago.