The express home shopping platform Flink, which employs 218 people in France, “will be liquidated” on Friday, its management announced to AFP on Thursday, which declared a cessation of payments before the Paris commercial court.
The company, one of the last to operate in France in this sector, suffered from the inflationary context, “still strong regulatory pressure” and a “disinterest of investors” in the sector, declared the chairman and CEO. William Luscan.
A resumption in September
Placed in receivership last June, Flink France was taken over in September by Guillaume Luscan, then its general director, the German parent company and the Algerian start-up Yassir. The new entity was called New Flink France. This takeover then made it possible to maintain 56% of the workforce, or more than 200 employees.
The start-up Yassir, “specializing in on-demand and payment services, one of the most valuable in the Europe, Middle East and Africa zone”, according to Guillaume Luscan, had injected five million euros into the business.
But inflation has weighed on product purchasing conditions and regulatory pressure, "which remains strong", would imply "significant" investments on the part of New Flink France to transform a certain number of its sites, explained its CEO at AFP.
Finally, the “financial context is very difficult”, investors “are losing interest in the sector” after the recent disappointments of “quick commerce”, or the express delivery of groceries to homes, he concluded.
Indeed, in March 2023, very restrictive regulations put a stop to “quick commerce” players. The government had decreed that “dark stores”, these premises where products to be delivered are stored, were warehouses and not businesses, opening the way to regulation by town halls of this activity, and even to the closure of certain sites. .
The Turkish company Getir, which operated the Getir, Frichti and Gorillas brands, then announced its withdrawal from the French market. Getir and Gorillas had been liquidated, leaving 1,300 employees in the lurch, but Frichti had been taken over by a competitor, La Belle Vie.
Flink, created in 2020 in Germany by logistics and distribution experts, established itself in France in 2021. Its turnover in France amounted to 37.5 million euros.
A market that has not disappeared
While they arrived with fanfare on the French market, taking advantage of the confinements linked to the Covid-19 pandemic to develop, there is now not much left of the fifteen or so players specialized in express delivery.
Flink, Cajoo, Gopuff, Gorillas and others engaged in a fierce competitive battle with extremely aggressive promotions, financed by impressive fundraising.
A model which economically “asphyxiated” them, because it operated “at a loss” to retain customers and decimate competitors, MP Maud Gatel (MoDem), co-author of a report, explained to AFP on the subject.
Despite these bankruptcies, “quick commerce” will not disappear. This market, still “modest, remains growing and could reach a turnover of 438 million euros in 2030”, according to Maud Gatel.
Players for whom this was not their DNA have recently positioned themselves in this niche, such as Uber Eats or Deliveroo.