Booktopia cuts 40 jobs in bid to rewrite earnings story

Australia’s largest online book retailer Booktopia has cut up to 40 staff in its latest round of cost-saving measures, as it aims to shake off its recent history of leadership plot twists and financial losses.

The company said in an announcement on Monday, that it had implemented a number of cost-cutting measures as a response to changing consumer sentiment, greater online competition and inflation.

That includes an organisational restructure involving “30 to 40 redundancies,” or about 10 to 15 per cent of its employees, which the bookseller expects will save between $4 million and $5 million in annualised costs.

Booktopia chairman Peter George said the measure was part of a vision to position the company for challenging online retail conditions in the near term. “Letting some of our talented staff go as part of these cost-cutting initiatives is a disappointing but necessary step in these economic times,” he said.

A spokesperson for the company said the redundancies were largely in administrative roles rather than warehouse positions.

Shares in the company were up 32 per cent on the announcement, closing at 27.5 cents. Booktopia shares have shed hundreds of millions of dollars in value since listing on the ASX in December 2020 at $2.30.

An investigation by The Age and Sydney Morning Herald revealed that the group fell out of favour with investors during its first 18 months on the ASX amid concerns about its leadership.

Struggling to meet its earnings forecasts after a period of strong pandemic-inspired growth, the bookseller quietly began laying off staff last year.

Nash effectively returned to the helm of the company last September as executive director, after calling for a shareholder meeting in August, with a plan to use his family and friends’ 30-per-cent-plus stake to overhaul the board.