Missfresh Responds to Closure of Rapid Delivery Services

The app of Chinese grocery e-commerce platform Missfresh now shows that its 30-minute delivery service has been replaced with next-day delivery in Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai. Jiemian News reported on July 28 that a number of Missfresh employees said they received a notification last night that all of its stores nationwide have been closed, the system-level update has also been completed, and the firm’s 30-minute delivery business has been officially shut down.

Regarding the matter, Missfresh responded that under the major goal of achieving profit, the company had adjusted its distributed mini warehouse model, and that next-day delivery and other businesses were not affected.

Since the beginning of this year, the 30-minute delivery business of Missfresh has contracted several times. It held business licenses in 17 cities across China, as shown on the Missfresh app. As of the end of June this year, it had distributed mini warehouses in only 13 cities, then closed its business in nine cities continuously over the course of three days.

Since March this year, Missfresh has been exposed many times to be in arrears with suppliers’ payment. An employee who was laid off in May mentioned that the compensation payment date originally scheduled for the end of June had been postponed to the end of July. At present, there are also delays to the payment of employee wages, and some have been informed to stay at home.

SEE ALSO: E-Commerce Platform Missfresh Completes Strategic Financing of $29M

On July 14, Missfresh announced on its investor relations page that it had reached an equity strategic investment cooperation agreement with Shanxi Donghui Group. According to the agreement, the latter will bring 200 million yuan ($29.6 million) of equity investment to Missfresh.

However, according to the disclosed financial report and forecast data of Missfresh, the net loss was 2.2316 billion yuan in 2018, 2.9094 billion yuan in 2019 and 1.6492 billion yuan in 2020, and the estimated loss in 2021 is 3.737 billion yuan to 3.767 billion yuan.

On the other hand, due to its failure to disclose the financial report in time and the stock price falling below $1 per share, it received two warning letters from Nasdaq Listing Qualification Department. The company’s financial reports for the fourth quarter and the whole year of 2021 have not yet been released.