The manager brings experience in the integration of acquired companies.
(Photo: Maria del Dado Alonso Sanchez)
Dusseldorf The e-commerce holding company Berlin Brands Group (BBG) is responding to the crisis in online retail by restructuring its management team. The former Amazon manager Maria del Dado Alonso Sanchez, as the new chief financial officer, is supposed to make the company, which has grown rapidly in recent years, more profitable again. The BBG announced this on Tuesday. The previous CFO Henrik Haenecke has left the company.
Founder Peter Chaljawsky has built up a company with ten locations in five countries and a turnover of more than 400 million euros in just 17 years. He sells self-developed products online under brands such as Klarstein, Blumfeldt or Auna. Recently, BBG has also acquired numerous branded retailers that grew up selling on Amazon.
But online retail is currently feeling the reluctance of consumers. Business fell by more than ten percent in the third quarter. This also applies to the BBG: “Until now, our priority was clearly aggressive growth, now the focus is on securing profitability,” Chaljawski recently told the Handelsblatt. In the course of this, BBG has already laid off 100 employees, which is ten percent of the workforce.
New HR manager was also formerly at Amazon
Alonso Sanchez brings experience in financial management and controlling and has held senior positions at Siemens, Booking.com, C&A and Amazon. Most recently she was CFO of the listed Dutch video games platform Azerion.
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What could help her in her job at BBG: She has experience in the integration of acquired companies, as Azerion had recently grown strongly through acquisitions. Chaljawski calls her the “preferred candidate for the next phase of our corporate development”.
According to BBG, the management team wants to “consistently focus on the expansion of the international platform”. In April, Darren Minshall was hired as the new HR manager, who had also previously worked for Amazon, among others. The previous Chief Commercial Officer Stephan Thönnißen and Chief Information Officer Robert Hein have left the company.
More: The illusion of billions: The hunters of the Amazon brands slide into the crisis