The residents of Georgian cities, including Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Rustavi, Zugdidi and now already Gori can enjoy quick and convenient access to their favorite restaurant, retail store or grocery shop, thanks to the Finnish- app Wolt. The Finnish tech company has been operating in Georgia since 2018, and is now expanding their business even further in the Georgian Market.
In the meantime, over 7,000 courier partners continue to deliver from the over 1,500 partner restaurants and 2,000 partner stores across five cities, – all in 30 minutes or less.
The company also plans to offer a wider assortment of products to its customers by increasing the number of partner merchants in the app.
In an interview with Golden Brand, General Manager of Wolt in Georgia, Sergi Margania, gave a status on the company’s operations in Georgia.
Q. Let’s start our conversation by talking about the company’s win of the Golden Brand award. In your opinion, what led Wolt to this recognition?
A. Any recognition of the work we do is great and something that we are proud of – and receiving the Golden Brand award is just that. For us this is primarily a reward from our customers, and we are very grateful for their recognition of what we do.
We can safely say that 2022 was a year of significant growth and progress for our company, which of course made an impression on experts and consumers in Georgia. Last year the number of our customers increased, together with the number of our partner merchants, which also increased significantly, and as a result our product assortment has become much more diverse ranging far beyond take-away delivery and more into retail and groceries.
We also entered the western city of Zugdidi, and we launched the Wolt+ subscription program that our customers have been waiting for and has been received really well.
Finally, last year we undertook some important projects not only for us but also 100+ stores and businesses in Georgia. First, I have to mention the launch of Wolt Drive. This is Wolt’s B2B service, through which any online merchant can offer delivery to customers within 30 minutes without being on the Wolt platform. Wolt Drive already helps hundreds of big and small online stores provide quick and convenient delivery which can be a very deciding factor for customers in today’s world. Customers want fast delivery – and now we can help with that whether you are on the Wolt platform or not.
The second major project we launched last year is the creation of a Wolt service center that provides remote customer service for Wolt’s other European markets. That means that brilliant young people right here in Georgia support customers in other markets such as Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Greece, with Germany soon to be added.
A final new addition in 2022 that I would also highlight is cooperation with Mastercard and the Bank of Georgia, which is important for us as well as for our customers. This cooperation allows us to offer our customers extraordinary incentive promotions throughout the year.
Wolt continues to grow and develop different business lines in our country. Everything is available on Wolt — take-away, delivery of groceries, personal care, auto services, pharmacy and much more. As the range grows, so does the number of our customers and their orders. We’ve seen this already as customers and orders almost doubled from 2021 to 2022. This is also thanks to the exclusive partnerships we have with popular restaurants and stores such as KFC, Paul, Ronny’s Pizza, Picasso, Gastronome, MetroMart, Zghapari, Tursa and many more which you can only get delivered through Wolt.
Q. How many orders are delivered in a day and at what time of day does Wolt get the most orders?
A. Thousands of orders are delivered every day, and this number is constantly increasing. Though previously it was mostly restaurant orders, today they order everything – pharmacy, groceries, auto parts, toys, and much more.
Now that you can order goods, we see high demand practically throughout the whole day. But the number of orders increases dramatically during lunch time and weekends and holidays are also quite busy, because Wolt always has promotions.
Q. Wolt faced a difficult challenge this year when hundreds of courier partners went on strike to demand a pay increase. Tell us about the company’s attitude and response to this request and, in general, what is the company’s policy towards its couriers?
A. First, let me clarify that this was a protest by a small group of partner couriers. We have more than 7000 couriers in Georgia, so while we listen to the criticism from this group, we also have to consider the feedback we get from the thousands of other couriers who have different views than this group. We’ve always expressed our willingness to engage in constructive talks if any of our partners are dissatisfied with the partnership, and our approach remains unchanged.
Q. The Georgia office was one of the first among Wolt’s 25 country offices to add delivery service from supermarkets. The Georgia office also occupies a top spot in the international office roster.
A. As I mentioned above, Wolt created a service center for other countries in Georgia. The company made this decision because our support service is one of the best and fastest in the world. Many of the young people who work with us are fluent in several foreign languages, among other skills, so the company saw a great potential for development in this direction. We can safely say that Georgia has become a talent pool for Wolt – and we’re quite proud of that.
