Singapore-headquartered online grocery and food delivery provider Honestbee has temporarily suspended its operation in Malaysia, Channel News Asia reports.
According to CNA, the decision to temporary suspend the company’s Malaysia business came from Honestbee’s headquarters in Singapore following a strategic review.
The suspension will take effect beginning Monday, July 22. Honestbee’s customers can still order their groceries on Friday and have them delivered over the weekend.
The on-demand service provider apparently hasn’t cleared its debts with its food partners in Malaysia.
In a separate statement sent to its food partners—and released by Vulcan Post—the service provider said, “We endeavour to meet our financial commitment to you, however at this moment, our headquarter in Singapore is unable to provide a firm payment schedule.”
“We would like to assure you that detailed timeline for the outstanding payment will be communicated as soon as it is available to us,” the statement added.
Honestbee troubles surfaced in April when it abruptly halted its operation in the Philippines amid regional layoffs. Then, in May, the service provider announced an exit from Singapore’s food delivery market and a temporary suspension of its on-demand laundry services in the city-state.
Honestbee also underwent some major leadership changes, starting with the replacement of its co-founder and CEO Joel Sng with Brian Koo, a member of Formation 8, a venture capital firm that invests in Honestbee. Just this week, its marketing vice president, who previously reported to Sng, also left the company.
TechCrunch suggested that Honestbee’s struggles stem from its unproven and cash-burning business model. Either way, on-demand delivery service is expensive to sustain despite being popular with users.
