Austrian retailer Billa has announced it will be offering jobs to employees who have registered for termination from Gurkerl.at, following layoffs at the online delivery company.
The Austrian daily newspaper Der Standard reported that Gurkerl.at has given notice of termination to 290 of the approximately 1,000 employees.
Automation
Der Standard reported that the reason for this is the planned full automation of its logistics centre in the 23rd district.
This conversion is already happening at the Munich and Frankfurt locations, however, the Vienna warehouse is significantly smaller, meaning the integration process will take longer.
New Opportunities
The head of Billa's online operations, David Renker, has made an offer to the affected employees to come work at Billa.
"We only opened a second online warehouse in Vienna Floridsdorf, next to Vienna Inzersdorf, in mid-November 2022 and are therefore looking for suitable logistics employees, because we want to continue to grow organically," said Renker.
"For us, the success factor is the interweaving of stationary trade and online trade in order to be able to offer our customers the best service in every situation. All those affected who have been registered for termination will receive an email from us with immediate effect job offer with permanent position.”
REWE Group
Billa is a subsidiary of REWE Group, which is one of the largest employers in Austria.
In December, REWE Group announced that its supervisory board extended the contract of chief executive Lionel Souque by five years.
Souque became chief executive in 2017 and the extension will see him continue in the role until the end of 2028.
© 2023 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Robert McHugh. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
