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Daraz confirmed to Reuters that the cuts will affect a base of
3,000 full-time regional employees.
A difficult market environment, the Ukraine crisis, supply chain
disruptions, soaring inflation, higher taxes and fewer
government subsidies were among reasons for the cuts, Mikkelsen
told employees in a letter on Monday, which was also published
on the company's website.
Pakistan and Bangladesh are the group's biggest markets,
Mikkelsen told Reuters. It also operates in Sri Lanka and Nepal.
"Both Bangladesh and Pakistan have a similar number of staff
impacted since both of them are similar in market size,"
Mikkelsen said, indicating there would be 100 cuts from each of
these countries.
Ehsan Saya, managing director of Daraz Pakistan told Reuters:
"Our headcount in Pakistan was 1,300, out of which 11% were laid
off."
Daraz, Pakistan's largest e-commerce retail platform, was
founded in 2012 in Pakistan and acquired by Chinese giant
Alibaba in 2018. It has 100,000 small and medium companies in
Pakistan on its platform.
Mikkelsen said the company will now refocus on its core
e-commerce business, simplify operations, and boost product
innovation and automation.
He told Reuters that there would be no hiring freeze, especially
in sustainable growth areas: "If this requires new hires for
certain functions, we will be proceeding with them."
Daraz would be looking into "digitising as many retailers as
possible", he said.
There was no immediate comment from Alibaba on the job cuts or
its investment in Daraz.
Daraz has boosted its active shoppers to more than 15 million
now, from 3 million in 2018, Mikkelsen said in the letter.
(Reporting by Ariba Shahid; Editing by Rashmi Aich and
Bernadette Baum)
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