Fresh Grocery E-Commerce Platform Meicai Lays Off 40% of Employees as IPO Plan Progresses

Recently, an apparent employee of Chinese fresh grocery e-commerce platform Meicai reported that the company’s Beijing headquarters has laid off 40% of its staff. In addition, the Meicai headquarters, which were originally located in the Yintai Shopping Mall in Wangfujing, Beijing, have now moved to the vicinity of Beijing Railway Station.

Another former employee of Meicai told domestic media outlet ifeng that the firm has been laying off employees for a while, and that some business directors and product directors were laid off some time ago.

The layoffs are probably intended to help the firm with its IPO plan. On January 12, local media outlets reported that Meicai plans to submit an application for listing in Hong Kong in the first half of this year, and has selected investment banks to partner with in the listing. Meicai has appointed CICC, Citibank and Nomura to take charge of the listing in Hong Kong, which is expected to raise between $300 million and $500 million.

Established in 2014, Meicai provides food and beverage procurement services to nearly 10 million shops and restaurants in China. In 2020, it began to provide distribution services for individual households.

SEE ALSO: Dingdong Maicai Denies Rumors of Internal Layoffs

In September last year, the Beijing headquarters of Meicai laid off 50% of its employees, and services in some cities were shut down. According to a previous report by Jiemian, an internal email showed that departments such as product R&D, procurement, sales, and finance in the firm’s Beijing headquarters are all facing layoffs risks.