Spanish company Glovo to acquire Ehrana delivery platform

Ljubljana – Spanish start-up Glovo announced on Wednesday it would acquire one of the largest food delivery providers in Slovenia, Ehrana. The acquisition is expected to be formally completed in the next few months and the two companies are already planning their transition strategy. The purchase price has not been disclosed.

Glovo runs an on-demand courier service. Its app enables delivery from restaurants, grocery chains, pharmacies and retail stores, and includes a miscellaneous category that allows users to order what they want.

Glovo CEO Oscar Pierre sees Ehrana as a strong local player and the merger represents a strategic opportunity for Glovo to enter a new market and further strengthen its influence in a region where online delivery services are growing in popularity.

“We are working closely with Ehrana to ensure as smooth a transition as possible with minimal disruption to users and delivery partners alike. We are delighted to bring our experience and expertise from abroad to Slovenia,” the CEO was quoted as saying in a press release.

Ehrana is also looking forward to the merger. According to its director and co-founder Borut Markelj, Glovo had already attracted their attention on several occasions.

“We are delighted that Ehrana will now also be part of an international success story, as we believe that the merger will bring added value to our customers and business partners, as well as to the Slovenian food delivery sector,” he said.

The two companies plan to operate the delivery service under the Glovo brand, with future deployments to be decided on a city-by-city basis.

Glovo is expanding its presence in Central and Eastern Europe with the help of Series F funding, through which they raised EUR 450 million, a record amount in the history of start-ups in Spain.

Earlier this year, it also entered a EUR 100 million partnership with Swiss real estate company Stoneweg to develop the newly established Q-Commerce division, which will be involved in the establishment of micro-distribution centres within city centres.

Meanwhile, in Spain, delivery companies like Glovo, Deliveroo and UberEats have recently been given a three-month deadline to provide employment contracts to their self-employed delivery workers. This makes Spain one of the first countries to regulate the working conditions and rights of delivery workers in this way.

Last year, the Spanish Supreme Court ruled that companies must provide delivery workers with employee status. This means that platforms are treated as employers and their workers as employees rather than partners, which is not yet regulated in Slovenia.

Spanish delivery companies have already started to adapt to the new rules, with Glovo opting to hire workers through recruitment agencies.

Glovo was founded in Barcelona in 2015 and operates in SE Europe, Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa, while the Ehrana platform was established in 2010. Today, it has more than 270,000 users, 500 partner restaurants and operates in 32 Slovenian cities and towns.

The two largest food delivery providers in Slovenia, Ehrana and Finnish company Wolt, have seen a boom in business over the past year due to restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.

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