<article>Grofers India Pvt. Ltd on Tuesday revoked 67 job offers to students who were scheduled to join the grocery delivery start-up in July, citing market conditions.</article>

Grofers India Pvt. Ltd on Tuesday revoked 67 job offers to students who were scheduled to join the grocery delivery start-up in July, citing market conditions.
The Tiger Global Management-backed company emailed its decision to National institute of Technology at Allahabad and Surathkal, Birla Institutes of Technology at Pilani and Goa and Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad.
“This has reference to the positions with Grofers India Pvt. Ltd in respect of which we have communicated with students from the 2016 batch at your respected institute. Owing to the market conditions and changes which affect our business, we regret to inform you that such positions are no longer available,” Grofers stated. Mint has reviewed a copy of the mail.
Muralidhar Kulkarni, professor in charge of training and placement at NIT Surathkal confirmed that Grofers had revoked offers issued to seven students. Emails to the placement cells of other institutes went unanswered.
The Grofers move comes barely a month after India’s largest shopping portal Flipkart Ltd delayed joining dates for 17 graduates from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, by six months, angering premier engineering and management institutes in the country. The company, which shares a common investor, Tiger Global, however promised a joining bonus ofRs.1.5 lakh to the affected students.
Grofers chief executive Albinder Dhindsa confirmed the development. “We revoked about 67 offers mostly for joinees into operations. We are downsizing some of the teams given the market environment and our revised growth projections. Most of the joinees were supposed to be for these teams. We are still talking to the institutes and the affected individuals to figure out a way forward,” Dhindsa said in an email response.
“Grofers even offered us temporary accommodation in Gurgaon one day prior to rescinding our offer. I had given up many opportunities due to Grofers. For most companies, the recruitment cycle spreads from January to June. At this moment, it is quite difficult to find good opportunities,” said Rohan Coelho, a student of BITS Pilani, Goa, whose offer was revoked by Grofers.
At IIM-Bangalore, Hopscotch and CarDekho have deferred joining dates. At IIT-Guwahati, Roadrunnr and Click Labs have deferred joining dates, Mint reported on 27 May. Companies defer joining dates when they are unable to predict or wrongly predict the demand for fresh recruits. Most start-ups in India are struggling to meet their hiring commitments in the face of a funding crunch.
Also read: <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Companies/kgZGMRAOyKOJbyeIgF6eFK/IITs-wary-of-startup-hiring-after-Flipkart-deferrals.html" target="_blank">Flipkart deferrals make IITs wary of start-up hiring</a>
Overall, about 150 students across IITs may be affected by these start-ups’ decision to delay the joining date and the list of such companies may get longer.
The IITs <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Companies/mc9tA2dcJJLjgo64Y0Q3UO/IITs-blacklist-six-startups-from-campus-placements.html" target="_blank">blacklisted</a> six start-ups that went back on their word to hire graduates in the upcoming placement season. Besides, start-ups that cited business environment to slash salaries they had originally committed to paying IIT graduates, also risk being blacklisted if they do not accept the students at the originally promised package. At least five companies had reduced salaries by as much as 25%, Mint reported on 3 June.
Apart from discounts and advertising, employee costs are the largest expense for e-commerce companies.
The developments come at a time when even well-capitalised startups such as Flipkart and Grofers are struggling to raise more funds at their current valuations. All these companies had spent heavily on customer acquisition and marketing during the heydays when funds were readily available, resulting in poor unit economics and high cash burn.
Hyperlocal grocery delivery start-ups such as Grofers, which accept orders from consumers on an app, collect items from nearby stores and delivers them, often at a discounted price. These companies, which operate on thin margins, lost money on every order because of discounts and offers in an attempt to attract more consumers.
To be sure, Grofers is the most well capitalized hyperlocal delivery start-up, having raised about $165 million from Softbank, Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital. Its nearest rival PepperTap, which raised about $51 million, shut down consumer-facing delivery operations in April.
On 5 January, Mint <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Companies/l4wKnj0rk14zrJSRB0i6pO/Grofers-shuts-down-operations-in-9-cities.html" target="_blank">reported that</a> Grofers had rolled back operations in nine cities in the past 15 days because of poor demand.
“The smaller cities are not ready for hyperlocal business yet; once they are, we will reconsider our strategy,” chief executive Dhindsa had told Mint. This essentially implies that the market for such businesses is restricted to the top five to eight cities, thus limiting their scope of expansion.
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">This story was first published on <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Industry/oxhNrb3nn5NvrYRO2r8JAK/Grofers-revokes-67-job-offers-across-operations.html">livemint.com</a></h4>

Grofers India Pvt. Ltd on Tuesday revoked 67 job offers to students who were scheduled to join the grocery delivery start-up in July, citing market conditio

India: Hyperlocal delivery startup Grofers revokes 67 campus job offers

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