Airlift realigns strategy amidst global recession

Airlift employs new strategy in the face of global recession in an effort to reduce the surface area of operations and to increase focus on key areas that drive sustainability and profitability.

Airlift is a popular Pakistani consumer service with technology-backed logistics that provide safe, reliable and affordable access to products for customers at their doorstep.

The company is focusing on building scale and profitability in markets with considerable scale and high order density. It recently announced that it was pulling out of certain markets including Faislabad, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Peshawar, Hyderabad, Johannsberg, Cape Town and Pretoria, in light of global recession. The service company is additionally planning to relocate 8-10 dark stores in its largest markets which includes Lahore, Islamabad, and Karachi.

Moreover, Airlift is also reducing headcount by 31% across all of its markets and limiting the number of categories on the platform. In its press release, the company says its committed to providing financial and placement support to help find new roles.

It is a global correction, with all of the startups including bigger companies like Netflix even laying off 10% of their employees, Ali Baba pulling out investments and many others saw some of the steepest crypto losses. This week, we saw Alibaba liquidate their investment in Paytm Mall at 1% of the former market value. The biggest impact of the ongoing stock market crash is a shift in market sentiment. So it was not like Airlift did not plan - nobody could for one of the biggest drop in 30 years.

In a post, Airlift said that this was an important step towards Airlift’s long-term vision of enabling self-empowerment and leveraging technology to offer customer-centric solutions.