Online fashion retailer Zalando to cut several hundred jobs
Online etailer Zalando will cut up to 5 per cent of its workforce due to a slowdown in the economy.
The Berlin-based company on Tuesday told staff that it would “remove several hundred overhead roles” over the coming months, saying that “the pandemic tailwinds have faded since 2022 and the macroeconomic environment has become more challenging”.
Zalando did not disclose how many of its 17,000-strong workforce would leave and that discussions with the workers’ council had only just begun.
The cuts will include those at “senior leadership level” while the retailer’s logistics centres, customer care and its handful of brick and mortar stores will be spared.
The planned job cuts come just two weeks before the release of the group’s full-year results, which analysts expect to show that sales were flat at €10.4bn and operating profit more than halved to just €187mn.
The group issued a profit warning last June that sent shares briefly below its 2014 initial public offering price. In August, Robert Gentz, co-founder and co-chief executive, reported that the group “just need to play a bit more defensively”, adding that a hiring freeze would be enough to stabilise its operations.
However, on Tuesday, Gentz and David Schneider, his co-founder and co-chief executive, told employees that “we are not where we need to be and as a result, we must take even more decisive action”.
