HappyFresh closed its operations in Malaysia and Thailand after seven years. Meanwhile, David Lim SVP, Marketing is also said to be discussing his role going forward. He joined Scoot in 2018, where he was Vice President of Marketing. INTERACTIVE-MARKETING understands that several members of the marketing team have been affected.
On Facebook, HappyFresh said that due to the current economic situation, it had “no choice but to cease operations [in Malaysia and Thailand]effective immediately.” He thanked consumers for their support and for helping HappyFresh provide jobs for more than 850 employees throughout this period.
Regarding its operations in Indonesia, HappyFresh recently secured new funds from investors to resume its online grocery operations in the market. According to the company, Indonesia is the largest and most profitable market among the three countries in which HappyFresh operates. Its operations in Indonesia have resumed with the technology division under the leadership of co-founder and CTO, Fajar Budiprasetyo.
Since the decision, HappyFresh has also parted ways with its creative agency Imaginary Friends in Malaysia, while talks with partner PRecious Communications are still ongoing. HappyFresh is still working with Small People Production for creative assignments in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, last month, the team unveiled a new spot with dancing disembodied legs featuring rising Malaysian rap artist, Hullera, to showcase their new HappyFresh Supermarket offering. In May, he called on Malaysians to share their #FrequencyOfFresh by releasing a Spotify track where a woman tells consumers how to tell the freshness of various products by sound. He’s also taken inspiration from in-law relationships, launching a cheeky regional campaign in 2020 titled “Make In-Laws Happy.”
Last year, HappyFresh’s work for its loyalty program also impressed INTERACTIVE-MARKETINGto the judges of the Asia eCommerce Awards 2021, which earned it the gold medal for the best eCommerce loyalty program. It also won Silver for Best Ecommerce Campaign – Influencers and Bronze for Best Ecommerce Campaign – Content Marketing at the awards.
Earlier, Bloomberg reported that HappyFresh has halted grocery deliveries in some areas of Jakarta and that some senior managers have stopped carrying out their daily duties.
In a statement from the company, CEO Guillem Segarra, CFO Frederic Verin and COO Christoph Krauss have since returned to their day-to-day duties. According to HappyFresh, the restructuring resulted in the permanent resignation of three former board members, namely Kai-Kevin Gotthard Kux, Lee Jung An and David Keller last week.
As part of the restructuring, he will work with venture debt funds Genesis, Innoven and Mars to ensure business operations in Indonesia provide a solid path to profitability by 2022. The venture debt funds have also appointed US risk advisory firm Kroll to help with the restructuring.
Filippo Candrini, Managing Director of HappyFresh Indonesia, said, “This is no simple feat and will enable the resumption of our business operations in Indonesia with greater stability in the months and years to come.”
He added that over the past few weeks when it suspended its operations, HappyFresh saw many customer comments on various social media platforms indicating their confidence in our service offering while requesting that the service be resumed as soon as possible. as possible.
“Having been part of the business for the past seven years, it has given us a great sense of motivation to come back, stronger than ever to ensure the business operates at a higher level of efficiency while our customers can continue to enjoy their favorite grocery service again,” he added. Meanwhile, HappyFresh did not disclose the monetary value of its new funding. The company was founded in 2014 and has so far raised $97 million via equity financing and debt financing.
Last July, it bagged $65 million in Series D funding and planned to double down on efforts to drive brand awareness across all countries using a hyperlocal strategy that speaks to the local target audience. It also unveiled HappyFresh Supermarket in February, expanding the accessibility of fresh and dry groceries by dramatically increasing its presence in dark stores across the region. Nonetheless, economic headwinds have been a challenge for grocery delivery services. In August, Grab closed its dark store operations in Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines to cut costs and streamline delivery operations. It is a funder of HappyFresh.
Digital Marketing Asia is back for its 10th year! 10 years of exclusive ideas, sharing experiences and great successes. Join us for 3 days of hyper-focused pitch topics across 6 tracks from November 15-17 and connect with over 1000 of the world’s brightest minds in the world of marketing to learn and improve from over 85 speakers of the hottest regional and global brands. Click here to register now!
Related Articles:
HappyFresh next to make job cuts
HappyFresh MY’s new spot has disembodied legs dancing down the aisles
HappyFresh uses the sounds of fresh food to create a marketing track on Spotify
HappyFresh is looking for marketing roles in Southeast Asia
Interview: 3 essential questions for HappyFresh when taking creative risks