2023年4月6日

CoLab聯合創始人兼聯合首席執行官Elle Curran和Josh Abulafia。美食即食食品和食品配送服務公司CoLab已經聘請了管理人員，成為最新一家在快速變化的澳大利亞市場中陷入困境的直接麵向消費者的食品平台。CoLab於2022年8月正式成立，是總部位於悉尼的ChefPrep和Co-Lab Pantry的結合，ChefPrep提供餐廳製作的飯菜供在家準備，而Co-Lab Pantry是墨爾本的一個平台，提供精品生產商的高端食物。它為購物者提供了一係列即食熱包、披薩、餃子和咖喱，來自Farro、South Yarra Deli和Oriental Teahouse等餐廳。高檔調味料和醬料也有供應，生產商包括Entrecôte、Chotto Motto和Fancy Hank’s。獲取每日商業新聞。您還將收到代表我們合作夥伴的消息。你可以隨時退出。這家企業由ChefPrep的聯合創始人Elle Curran和Josh Abulafia領導，他們在收購Co-Lab Pantry之前的12個月內籌集了近600萬美元的資金。Co-Lab Pantry的Avin Chadee和Natasha Buttigieg留在了新的合資企業。 Just months after envisioning CoLab’s future as the “Amazon for food”, Abulafia on Wednesday said the withdrawal of extra funding commitments led to the business’ administration. CoLab was “in the process of closing out a new round of financing that fell through,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “We then had significant interest for the company to be acquired and decided to put the company into [voluntary administration] to help, but due to unforeseen events our timelines became truncated.” CoLab has laid off its staff as a result, he said. Documents listed by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission show CoLab appointed Morgan Kelly and David Kennedy of Ernst & Young as joint administrators on Monday, March 27. The administrators intend to continue trading the businesses, according to a note on the CoLab website, and are “seeking proposals for an urgent recapitalisation of the Group or the purchase of the Group’s business and assets.” The first meeting of creditors took place Thursday morning. SmartCompany has contacted Ernst & Young for comment. “We want to focus on speed to help the staff find a new job and transition as quickly as possible,” Abulafia said, while inviting prospective buyers to visit the CoLab platform. “It fucking rocks and this sucks,” he added. One small business that supplied products to CoLab told SmartCompany they received an email on Wednesday informing them that the business would be winding down, and asked them to pick up unsold stock within the next week. SmartCompany understands the business is not owed any money, as CoLab sold the products on consignment. Food delivery services facing hardship While Abulafia says CoLab’s administration was the result of a specific financial setback, it comes amid broader turmoil in the broader food delivery sector. Rising interest rates and the prospect of falling consumer spending have spooked investors from pumping further funds into cash-burning enterprises, while inflation has made it costlier for those same firms to compensate delivery personnel and maintain rental agreements at delivery hubs. Deliveroo Australia collapsed in November after its global parent company found its operations were not competitive, and that it would cost too much in further investment to challenge players like Uber Eats. ‘Instant’ grocery delivery services have also stumbled from their pandemic-era highs, when on-again, off-again lockdowns built hype around companies like Milkrun. Milkrun laid off a fifth of its staff in February, with founder Dany Milham saying a “rapidly” changing economic environment had forced “structural changes and some tough decisions that will unfortunately impact some of our people.” The firm continues, without its former 10-minute delivery promise, where other competitors have collapsed entirely: Voly, Send, and Quicko have all folded.