Finnish Delivery Service Wolt to Launch in Luxembourg

According to Silicon Luxembourg, the Finnish delivery service Wolt will be expanding to Luxembourg.

While its first focus will be on restaurants, the company aims to add supermarkets and pet food stores to its offering.

According to Theodor Georgiev, in the first stages of Wolt’s launch, the company will service Luxembourg City, reaching from Kirchberg through Limpertsberg, Merl, Cessange to Bonnevoie and Cents, as well as the city centre.

“Traditionally, the way we start is delivery of restaurant food. But in the end, we want to build a shopping mall in your pocket. Of course, it’s a journey. We will go through that in Luxemburg as well, and we should be able to serve a multitude of your needs and also support smaller local shops,” said Henrik Pankakoski, Regional General Manager, North at Wolt.

Food deliveries are common nowadays, due to people’s busy lifestyles. Such services allow people to focus on other tasks. A study commissioned by Wolt (by data collector Norstat) showed that people use the time they save by ordering food to work, rest and for leisure activities. The same study also indicated that 86% of merchants using the Finnish delivery service were small businesses.

Services such as Wolt may allow smaller businesses to increase their revenue without investing in building an online presence. Using the platform takes a cut of the merchant’s profits and allows for easier entry into the market in return.

In June 2022, online American food delivery giant DoorDash acquired Wolt. Its market share in January 2024 was evaluated at 66% by data gathering and visualisation platform Statista. It operates in 29 countries, 25 of which are under the Wolt brand. The Finnish company brings its experience in launching in new markets and working in different languages.

In 2021, Wolt launched its Wolt+ membership programme, which offers its customers free delivery for a monthly fee. Its partnership with DoorDash aims to help in growing its product. Yet, as far as the Grand Duchy is concerned, getting established is first on the agenda, according to Silicon Luxembourg.

With Luxembourg’s population growth and the increase in diversity over the last 20 years, levelling the playing field for merchants just might result in a larger variety of food options.