Daraz Group to reduce 11% of workforce

Leading e-commerce platform Daraz Bangladesh has decided to lay off dozens of employees as its mother organisation, Daraz Group, plans to reduce its workforce by 11 per cent in order to cope with the 'current market reality'.

Daraz Bangladesh had 200 employees in 2018, which increased to 5,000 at the end of 2022, including 1,000 full-timers.

Around 50 employees out of the 1,000 have received termination letters, a senior official of Daraz Bangladesh told The Daily Star seeking anonymity.

"…in the last 12 months, the market environment turned and became extremely difficult with a war in Europe, huge supply chain disruptions, soaring inflation," said the group's CEO, Bjarke Mikkelsen.

He made the comment in a letter to the company's employees shared on its website.

Daraz Group, which is a subsidiary of Chinese behemoth Alibaba, operates in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

"In order to weather the storm, we need to collectively do everything we can to improve profitability and save costs. This includes refocusing on the core business, simplifying the organisation, and doing more with less in all departments," he added.

In Bangladesh, Daraz already decided to close down its business to business e-commerce wing and laid off around 80 per cent of the 40-odd workforce of the wing, a few officials of Daraz Bangladesh told The Daily Star seeking anonymity.

The employees from other departments, including marketing, is also being laid off.

However, the company hasn't disclosed the total number of people who will be laid off in Bangladesh.

Earlier in July, HungryNaki, Daraz's food delivery arms, scaled down operations by half and laid off a majority of its employees.

The cuts had come about a little over one year after Alibaba acquired 100 per cent of HungryNaki, which was launched in 2013, from its local owners via Daraz Group.

Alibaba acquired Pakistan-based e-commerce platform Daraz in 2018.