Honestbee Owes Partners Money: Reports|遭欠款店家組自救會 誠實蜜蜂:已解決8成

Singaporean grocery and food delivery company Honestbee which entered Taiwan in 2015 is reported to have been owing money to its suppliers and partners for several months. A number of these suppliers and partners have formed a self-help association hoping to get their money back.


Mr. Yan washes ingredients as a pot of clear soup for noodles simmers on a stove. In July 2018, Mr. Yan, a noodle vendor at Zhonglun Market, began working with Singaporean grocery and food delivery company Honestbee, hoping to add another source of customers. He didn't expect that he would end up being owed money, especially less than one year after signing the contract. He has not been paid for March and April.

Everything was fine last year. It became abnormal this year, after the Lunar New Year, around February. I wasn't paid for February until April.

A neighboring beef noodle soup vendor is also owed money by Honestbee. The owner says Honestbee began delaying payments starting in February this year. Every time he calls the customer service hotline, it's either busy or he gets the canned response that the accounting department is already processing the payment.

I called the Taipei City Government's 1999 Citizen Hotline and asked a question. They told me that right now they have no department or agency that can supervise the accounts of food delivery platforms. That means that if we run into problems, we have to individually hire lawyers to sue them.

The Honestbee grocery and food delivery platform was established in Singapore in 2014. It entered Taiwan in 2015 and is now in its fourth year in Taiwan. In response to these reports that it owes money, the company issued a statement saying it cares for and values all its partners, and it abides by the process of financial due diligence just like other companies. With regards to the issue of delayed payments, it is actively handling them and has already settled its accounts with 80 percent and will settle the remaining debts as quickly as possible. Many of those partners and suppliers that are owed money have severed their relationship with Honestbee, and have also formed a self-help association hoping to get their money back as quickly as possible.