Redundancies at Booktopia as company looks to lift profits

Booktopia has announced an organisational restructure involving 30–40 redundancies, as the company looks to make an improvement to its earnings.

The restructure is one of several initiatives that Booktopia expects will deliver $12–15 million in annual improvements to its earnings from the 2024 financial year onward. A business review was conducted ‘to improve shareholder returns and in response to changing consumer sentiment, greater competition online and inflation’.

Booktopia said the 30–40 redundancies would be taken mainly from administrative roles and would result in $4–5 million in annual savings. Other business initiatives include adjusting the pricing on various products to improve gross margins; a reduction in delivery costs; an ‘optimised’ advertising program that focuses more on high-conversion channels; and a reduction in the company’s property/lease obligations.

Booktopia chairman Peter George said: ‘Booktopia is focused on building a profitable, sustainable business in the interests of all stakeholders and is committed to delivering the next gen CFC [customer fulfilment centre] in 2023 which will position the company for the challenging online retail conditions in the near term.’

‘Letting some of our talented staff go as part of these cost cutting initiatives is a disappointing but necessary step in these economic times,’ said George.

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, in its last full year results for the year ended 30 June 2022, Booktopia reported its revenue was up 7.5% while its underlying earnings fell 54% percent over the same period. The company has since made several changes to its board, including the return of founder and former CEO Tony Nash to the board and the appointment of George in December.

Category: Local news