6 per cent of Zooplus staff have to go

Zooplus, Europe's leading online platform for pet supplies, announced yesterday, 29 January, organisational changes: Around six per cent of employees could be affected by redundancies. Competitor Fressnapf had already recently announced a slight reduction in staff numbers at its Krefeld headquarters.

“These changes are aimed at strengthening competitiveness in an increasingly challenging market environment and aligning the company towards sustainable growth in the long term,” Zooplus explained. “These decisions were not easy for us, but they are necessary to ensure the sustainable success of our company,” emphasises Steffen Schüller, CFO of Zooplus SE. “We will provide comprehensive support to all employees affected by the changes during the transition phase.”

Zooplus was founded in 1999 and is currently active in more than 30 European countries. The new location strategy will focus on the three main sites in Munich, Madrid and Krakow. “The headquarters will remain in Munich. The company will move into a newly designed office building there, which will offer employees a modern and collaborative working environment,” a company spokesperson told pet worldwide. “Other locations where we are active are Vienna, London, Wrocław and Wojkowice.”

After years of expansion, the company is realigning itself in the face of “rising costs and changing market conditions after careful analysis in order to be able to react flexibly and efficiently to customer needs in the future,” it continues. Despite the realignment to the most important locations, Zooplus will remain represented in all of its existing markets.