Exclusive:
Internet fashion firm Asos has proposed sweeping job cuts in parts of its head office as it tries to return the business to profit and “simplify the organisation”
ASOS is threatening to axe more than 200 jobs as the online fashion giant battles with mounting losses.
Staff at the firm’s head office face the chop in a shake-up aimed at “simplifying the organisation” and to return the business to profit. A consultation on the proposed job losses has begun, impacting among others business analysts, all engineering managers, and platform leads.
A message to staff, seen by the Mirror, states the current set-up was “no longer suitable for today’s business priorities and context.” It adds: “We need to move faster and deliver more”.
In 2022, Asos cut more than 100 jobs across all parts of the business. It employed more than 3,000 people in the UK at the time.
Asos enjoyed booming sales during the Covid lockdowns, as stuck-at-home households splurged on internet shopping. But the lifting of restrictions saw a return to physical shopping that has coincided with intense competition. Asos’s share price has plunged more than 90% since 2021.
Losses in the six months to March this year jumped from £87.4million to £120m, with sales plunging nearly 20%.
As well as axing roles, Asos has also proposed creating a number of others and says it wants to hire more software engineers and product managers.
In a statement, the company said: “We’ve entered into a collective consultation with members of our technology team around a proposed restructure to drive greater innovation and agility. It would be inappropriate to comment further while the consultation is ongoing.”
Last month saw Asos agreed to sell a 75% stake in the Topshop and Topman brands to Heartland, the Danish investment company owned by billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen. Asos bought the two brands, along with Miss Selfridge and HIIT, in 2021 from Philip Green’s collapsed Arcadia group for £265m.
