Middle East meal delivery player Calo, which launched in the UK just over a year ago having absorbed two local meal delivery brands, has announced it is to end its UK operation.
The company said its time in the UK had been “a meaningful chapter” but it was now “refocusing on its core GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) markets and expansion into new verticals, where it continues to see strong demand and momentum across the region”.
It added that “the decision to step back is one that has been taken thoughtfully”.
Calo launched in the UK in April last year, having absorbed the operations and customers of health-focused, locally prepared meal delivery businesses Fresh Fitness Food and Detox Kitchen.
At the time, the company said the UK “was the logical first market outside of MENA due to timezone alignment, shared language, and a strong cultural fit”. It also shared its ambition to expand across Europe and the US.
Its UK launch came months after the company – which was founded in Bahrain in 2019 and operates across Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – raised $25m in Series B funding. It later raised a further raised $39m in a funding round extension.
The business also hired Caroline Hazlehurst as its chief operating officer. Hazlehurst – who left the company in March, according to LinkedIn – was the first general manager at Deliveroo UK & Ireland.
Caspar Rose, former CEO of Fresh Fitness Food, who became the general manager of Calo UK, called the company at the time “the Nike of food, a mission-led brand with solutions for a wide range of customer needs”.
All new orders will cease at the end of this month, with deliveries continuing as normal through to the end of June. All outstanding customer credits will be refunded. Existing UK customers will be contacted directly, with information regarding their accounts and any outstanding orders.
“We are enormously proud of what we built in the UK and deeply grateful to our customers, partners and team for everything they made possible,” said Rose. “We look forward to continuing to serve our communities across the GCC where growth continues to accelerate.”
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