Bite Squad stopping service in Duluth, St. Cloud, Rochester

Bite Squad will stop its meal-delivery service Dec. 5 in Duluth, St. Cloud and Rochester.

Since the Louisiana company Waitr bought Bite Squad for $321 million in January, it doubled its footprint to reach 700 towns and cities in 27 states between the two app-based delivery services.

However, earlier this month, as it essentially wrote off the Bite Squad purchase, Waitr said it would halt delivery in 38 markets, mainly smaller cities that were new to its network.

Duluth, St. Cloud and Rochester were among those 38, having started service in Duluth in May and St. Cloud and Rochester in August, said Dean Turcol, a spokesman for Waitr.

"In order to position ourselves for the future, we've made the unfortunate but necessary decision to close a subset of low-performing markets including those cities," he said. "We didn't see a path to profitability in the markets we closed. We are grateful for the restaurants, customers and drivers that supported us."

Bite Squad remains in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Roseville, and is "doing very well in those cities," Turcol said.

In those cities, Bite Squad has launched a Thanksgiving meal campaign with the company and its restaurant partners donating a holiday meal to someone in need.

Bite Squad had been the most valuable acquisition involving a Twin Cities tech startup this decade. Waitr has now laid off many of its corporate employees in Minneapolis.

Staff writer Evan Ramstad contributed to this report. Catherine Roberts • 612-673-4292