Deliveroo has announced it will cut around 350 roles, equally roughly nine per cent of its workforce.

In a message to its employees, chief executive Will Shu explained that in recent years the delivery service has grown its headcount “very quickly” as a response to “unprecedented growth rates supported by Covid-related tailwinds”.

“By contrast, we now face serious and unforeseen economic headwinds,” Shu said. “We have also recently exited markets, meaning we do not require the same size workforce to support our operations.”

Shu added that Deliveroo’s fixed cost base is “too big” for its business.

The chief executive also highlighted factors including soaring inflation, rising interest rates, an energy crisis and fears of a recession in the UK – claiming they had prompted the company to “take a hard look at its cost base”.

Deliveroo broke even in its final quarter results of 2022, yet the company recorded a 3.2 per cent loss in profits in the second half of 2021 and a 1.9 per cent loss in the first half of last year.

Deliveroo is just the latest in the recent onslaught of job cuts across the retail sector.

Ebay recently announced it would be cutting 500 jobs, around four per cent of its workforce, and clothing retailer M&co recently announced it would be closing all 170 of its stores, putting around 2,000 jobs on the line.

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