Otto Group leads OTTO, Baur & Schwab into future

26 Sep '12

5 min read

All three brands consider themselves as retailers with a human face. This means they offer personal customer service, advice and make a personal effort – whether on the telephone, by e-mail or through social media. This personality starts right from the way the assortment is composed, as customers find a skilfully and carefully arranged offering at OTTO, Baur and Schwab instead of an unfiltered mass of individual articles.

Under the Project FOKUS leadership of Birken, further specific investment measures have already been defined over the past few weeks. “More than ever before, multichannel expertise goes hand in hand with Internet-technology expertise. This is why we will develop a new software solution for otto.de ourselves in the next two years and in doing so completely renew the heart of the platform. Furthermore, we are confident that e-commerce will become ‘everywhere-commerce’. Our stated aim is to offer our customers the best possible shopping experience on each particular device”, Birken affirms. Over the next three years OTTO will receive an overall investment in the three-digit millions.

Hans-Otto Schrader, Chairman of the Executive Board and Chief Executive Officer Otto Group (CEO), is confident about these measures: “Over the past few weeks, the team has done an excellent job. It has defined the right steps and measures as part of FOKUS to position our company even more strongly in the market. Besides the massive investments in market performance, OTTO, Baur and Schwab are also making structural adjustments to establish efficient and market-focused processes.”

To ensure this, the companies will exploit even more synergies. Among these, a review is currently being conducted into whether and how purchasing and category management as well as back-office functions such as accounting, controlling and HR administration can be managed centrally. The marketing and service functions of all three brands will remain predominantly decentralised at the locations. “We are convinced that the brands need to be managed independently and close to the customer in a decentralised way. The heart of each brand can only beat independently”, says Alexander Birken.

Just how many employees will be affected by the structural changes up until 2015 and who may risk losing their jobs is currently being reviewed as part of extensive studies and has not yet been determined. According to estimations, starting from 2013 it is to be assumed that up to 450 of the 3,236 full-time positions could be affected by the restructuring at the single company OTTO – equating to a maximum of 14 per cent of the workforce.

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