Honestbee has announced that it will be temporarily suspending both its food and grocery delivery services in Malaysia from July 22 onward, stating that no delivery slots will be available from then until further notice.

“After a strategic review of our company’s businesses, our headquarters in Singapore has made a firm decision to temporarily suspend our operations in Malaysia. This is to ensure we can meet our financial commitments to our merchants, partners and suppliers as we carefully review the future of our operations,” Honestbee Malaysia said in a press statement to The Star.

The suspension will have no effect on full time employees at Honestbee Malaysia, while riders and shopper Bees “currently working with us will have the option to pursue other career paths when the opportunity arises, but most certainly be welcomed to rejoin the course of our business when we restore operations”, the company stated.

For customers who have purchased plans under beehive, an Honestbee subscription plan that comes with buy one-free one offers to dine-in at selected restaurants, the company said it will contact them to offer refunds, adding that no new deals will be announced during the temporary suspension period.

In April, website TechCrunch first reported that Honestbee is facing financial issues. Then in May, Honestbee introduced Brian Koo as the new chief executive officer of the company, replacing former co-founder Joel Sng.

“As CEO and chairman of the board at Honestbee headquarters, Brian and the group leadership team at Honestbee have been focused on fundraising and pursuing other strategic opportunities to leverage our successes thus far and to bring the company to financial sustainability,” the company said in its statement.

“The team at Honestbee Malaysia and our regional counterparts endeavour to meet all our payment obligations to our merchants, partners and suppliers. On top of that, the communication individually will take place at a local level in the next few days,” it added.

Honestbee first entered the local market in 2017, then focusing on grocery delivery services in Klang Valley. The company has expanded its services to Johor Bahru and Penang.

Its last day of operations before the temporary suspension of services on the aforementioned date will be on July 21. Its physical store habitat by Honestbee in Singapore remains open.