End of an Era: Menulog Shuts Down After 20 Years in the Food Delivery Industry

Share this @internewscast.com

After 20 years delivering meals and ad campaigns featuring stars such as Snoop Dogg and Katy Perry, Menulog is shutting down its Australian operations.

The popular food delivery service will stop trading on 26 November, the company announced on Wednesday, in a move that will cut 120 jobs and reduce competition in the market.

The Transport Workers Union (TWU) said the closure would come as a shock to delivery workers, who had been fighting for better employment conditions.

The recent announcement comes in the wake of notable exits in the food delivery sector, with Deliveroo ceasing operations in 2022 and Foodora bowing out in 2018. Despite the overall expansion of the food delivery market, these closures highlight underlying challenges within the industry.

Within the gig economy, workers continue to face significant hurdles. They often endure pay rates that fall below the minimum wage, lack access to essential benefits like sick leave and superannuation, and operate under intense pressure. This pressure to quickly complete jobs is driven by the fear of deactivation, which underscores the precarious nature of their livelihood.

Menulog, which was founded in Sydney in 2006, was one of Australia’s most popular food-delivery apps, according to Roy Morgan, second only to Uber Eats in 2022.

The decision to close the business had been challenging, Menulog managing director Morten Belling said, and the two-week notice of its closure was designed to allow customers to redeem vouchers and credits.

“Today is a tough day for the Menulog business, and I would like to reassure everyone this decision was not taken lightly,” he said.

“Our priority now is to support our customers, couriers and partners.”

The company, which was acquired by Dutch firm Just Eat Takeaway.com in 2020, will offer some of its delivery couriers four-week redundancy payouts.

The news would come as a shock to thousands of couriers, TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said, and highlighted employment instability in the industry.

“We will be working to ensure those workers receive pay for their work and fair exit payments over the coming weeks,” he said.

“In the gig economy, workers are still languishing with below-minimum wage rates, no sick leave or superannuation and deadly pressure to rush to make a living and avoid being deactivated.”

The federal government introduced closing loopholes laws in 2024 that introduced minimum standards for employee-like workers, and allowed the Fair Work Commission to set minimum standards for gig economy workers.

Remaining delivery services should back the changes urgently, Kaine said, to ensure couriers have confidence in their employment conditions.

“DoorDash, Uber Eats, Hungry Panda and Easi now need to come to the table to ensure we get standards in place as soon as possible,” he said.

Menulog’s closure will see the departure of the only food-delivery service that began in Australia, and comes after the withdrawal of Deliveroo in November 2022, which impacted 120 jobs.

The closures come despite growth in the market, with Statista reporting more than 8.3 million Australians used food delivery services in 2024 and predictions from Mordor Intelligence that the food service market would grow by 11.45 per cent annually.