INDIA – Indian multinational restaurant aggregator and food delivery company Zomato has closed two of its overseas subsidiaries – Zomato UK Limited (ZUK) in the UK and Zomato Media Private Limited (ZMPL) in Singapore – according to a stock exchange filing the company seen by ET retail. 
 
As part of its “cleaning-up” exercise, the food delivery firm has been shutting international subsidiaries that don’t contribute to its business since it was listed on Indian exchanges in July. 
 
The company said in the filing that its UK and Singapore subsidiaries were not material to its business and their dissolution would not affect its turnover or revenue.  

It added that it had disclosed in its IPO prospectus that both ZMPL and ZUL didn’t have any active business operations. 

 In August, Zomato closed down its subsidiary in the United States and sold its stake in Nextable Inc for US$100,000. 
 
Zomato once saw its international operations as a key growth area, but revenues from overseas comprise a tiny portion of its earnings.  

According to its quarterly earnings report, filed in August, the company earned Rs 806 crore (US$110m) of its Rs 844.4 crore (US$115m) operational revenue from India, Rs 31 crore from the UAE, and the rest from other markets. 

Zomato adopts new strategy on plastic waste management

Earlier, Zomato as a responsible corporate citizen decided to change its default mode, requiring customers to now explicitly “opt-in” for cutlery if they require it.  

This initiative according to the company was aimed at curtailing the use of plastic whose impact on the environment is increasing by the day 

According to the WWF more than 270 different animal species have been entangled in plastic debris, and entanglement kills at least 1,000 marine turtles every year.  

Taking note of the impact of plastic packaging, Zomato said it carried a survey to determine whether its customers actually needed the plastic cutlery. 

The food app revealed that 90% of customers who responded said that they did not really need plastic cutlery with their orders. This informed its decision to introduce the opt-in option. 

According to Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal, stopping the default delivery of single-use plastic spoons etc can help the company save up to 5,000 kilos of plastic waste in a day. 

Further, the company said in a statement that the change will help their restaurant partners save ₹2-5 (~0.5-1% of order value) on every order going forward. 

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