Europe’s largest perfumery chain Douglas responded with a massive austerity program on the Corona pandemic. Managing Director Tina Müller is planning to close until the autumn of next year, 500 of the 2400 stores in Europe, and to dismiss more than a thousand employees. In Germany alone, around 60 of 430 Douglas must go, therefore, 600 employees, stores in this country are affected by the finale.
The online business wants to expand, Müller continues. In 2020, the düsseldorf-based group reported here for the first time, more than a billion euros in sales and a double-digit operating profit margin.
The austerity programme was “a logical consequence of the Trend towards online trading,” said Miller of the MIRROR. “We adapt the branch network is now exactly as it is, from today’s point of view.” The movement in the online trade will continue to go. “And I can’t say exactly where the Online go travel,” says Müller.
Negotiations with the works Council
According to the MIRROR, Muller expects to downsize with a one-time cost of about 70 million euros. Operating profit will rise each year only by the branch closures of approximately 100 million euros, terminated employees in Germany are to be supported from a transfer Agency. “We know how difficult it is currently in the retail trade is to find a new Job,” says Müller. “The staff, of whom we have to part here, we want to help in career transition.”
The Management is negotiating currently with the works councils on compensation. In this case, no differences should be made between branches, with or without a works Council. The compensation offer of the group is higher than is common in the industry.
Douglas has been fighting for some time with excess capacity in the stationary retail trade. Especially in southern Europe, the branch network has grown by means of earlier acquisitions, but the customers go back to the frequencies in the inner cities – is also reinforced by the Corona pandemic. In the past fiscal year, which ended in September, posted the group at 3.2 billion euros, a total of 6.4 per cent less turnover.
From the point of view of Muller that is already a success in the face of a massive slump in Sales in the retail business, which was offset by the increase in E-Commerce, at least a little. The high cost could not be ironed out, however. The operating result declined by over 16.7 percent to 292 million euros.
The online trading Douglas wants to expand even further, and the remaining branches are increasingly integrated. For the past fiscal year, the düsseldorf reported in the digital business, a 40.6 per cent growth to 822 million euros in sales. A quarter of the business generated by the chain, in the meantime, online, in the home market of almost 40 percent. In the long term, Miller wants to rebuild the perfumery chain to an online retailer with a connected branch network.
