Jumbo cuts nearly 200 jobs at its main office

Positions no longer required

Jumbo revealed the news at the publication of its 2015 turnover. CEO Frits van Eerd says the jobs were cut because a lot of the positions are no longer required or do not belong to its core activities. Its main office will now have 735 full-time employees, instead of 925.

“We understand that these changes will bring a period of uncertainty for our staff at our main office, but they can rest assured that we will carefully execute the plan”, Frits van Eerd said.

100 million euro in investments

Alongside the restructuring program, Jumbo also revealed its 2015 turnover. Consumer turnover grew 30 % last year, to 6.25 billion euro, mainly thanks to a sizeable increase in stores. By the end of 2015, Jumbo had 580 stores, up 81 compared to 2014.

Consolidated turnover dropped from 6.816 billion euro to 6.646 billion euro and represents a 18.6 % market share. It had to sign over the last few stores it previously sold to Coop and Albert Heijn last year, which resulted in the drop.

Over the next 12 months, Jumbo intends to invest up to 100 million euro to update its stores and online sales channel. It will open another 100 pick-up points and it will also launch its delivery service for companies and consumers this year.

“We have opened hundreds of stores over the past few years, but now we will update those stores that have been around for quite a while. We will also do everything in our power to make sure our employees can focus entirely on customer service, which means we will reduce the number of employees in our offices and increase the number of staff in stores”, van Eerd said.