Before Waitr acquired it, Bite Squad was a Minnesota-based delivery service putting up huge numbers in its home turf, especially Minneapolis. Less than a year after finalizing the acquisition by Louisiana-based Waitr, Bite Squad has discontinued service in the cities of St. Cloud, Rochester and Duluth—Minnesota’s largest cities outside of the Twin Cities metro area.
Reported by a handful of Minnesota newspapers, the company is winding down operations in those cities in the coming weeks as parent company Waitr struggles with declining share prices and a net loss of more than $220 million during the third quarter of the current fiscal year.
Speaking to the St. Cloud Times, Bite Squad Media Relations Director Dean Turcol said the company was “unable to grow the market fast enough to become profitable.” This trifecta of exits is especially troubling given Bite Squad and Waitr’s often-stated goal of focusing on medium-sized cities that aren’t as important in the eyes of much larger national competitors like DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub.
Bite Squad will continue delivery service in Minneapolis and St. Paul, as well as the northern suburb of Roseville.
