Defiant Gorillas “not to leave Belgium”

A fortnight ago, Berlin-based Gorillas said it was “exploring all strategic options” form Belgium. Today, the quick commerce company was reported to be withdrawing from Belgium, but management later denied this was true.

“Exploring all strategic options”

Two weeks ago, Gorillas announced that it would have to reorganise and concentrate on its four European core markets (Germany, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) plus the United States. Gorilla would make extra investments in these markets, including the launch yesterday of its first private label products.

For the four other markets (Belgium, Denmark, Italy and Spain), the Germans would look at “all strategic options”: all followers understood from this that a departure was imminent, but the management now denies that this is true. At first, newspaper HLN reported management was confirming the withdrawal, citing an internal mail. Later on, however, other media later reported that no decision had yet been taken and that the withdrawal was just one of several scenarios that the management wanted to run by the trade unions. According to the management itself, a decision has now been taken to stay in Belgium, but to close a number of sites.

Gorillas started in Belgium on 17 June 2021 and only delivers in (parts of) Antwerp and Brussels. At the beginning of this year, it became the strategic partner of Jumbo in Belgium and the Netherlands, took over rival Frichti (also active in Belgium) in March and promised “some exciting projects” in Belgium this summer. How much of these still can be realised, remains an open question.