Getir exits UK and leaves multi-million pound outstanding debt to Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

Getir, the rapid grocery delivery company that was valued at $12 billion just two years ago, quit the UK recently, and is also leaving the US and western Europe.

The Turkey-based company has a three-year training kit sponsorship deal with Tottenham Hotspur F.C. which expired at the end of the Premier League season on Sunday.

And according to a report by Sky News, it owes close to £5 million to the club.

This comes as Getir tries to access a tranche of agreed funding from major investors Mubadala and G Squared to help facilitate its withdrawal from the UK, Germany and the Netherlands.

At the time of publishing this article, it was unclear whether it had the means to settle its debt to Spurs.

Getir and Tottenham Hotspur did not respond to our request for comment.

Back of a fag packet calculations

Seb Robert, CEO and Founder at last mile, on-demand specialist, Gophr, recently took to social media to address Getir’s decision to quit the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and the US and focus on its home market of Turkey.

Robert said: “Very sorry for the team and employees over there.”

“I genuinely thought Getir had a good chance of cracking it because they'd been at it for so long in Turkey that I felt if anyone would have a significant advantage over competitors it was them, even with the elevated costs associated with operating in major European cities.”

He added: “After bearing witness to the amounts of cash burned on restaurant delivery (peak madness; 2014–2018) we really couldn't understand what the VC's that backed 15-minute grocery delivery thought they were doing.”

“Even back of a fag packet calculations would tell you the unit economics were nigh on impossible. Figured there must be some sort of secret sauce. Sadly not the case.”