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Düsseldorf (dpa) - Germany's largest perfumery chain Douglas wants to close almost every seventh branch in the Federal Republic.

With the end of around 60 of the more than 430 branches, the group is reacting to the ever faster shift of sales to the Internet, said Douglas boss Tina Müller.

Around 600 of the more than 5,200 employees in the German branches lose their jobs as a result.

Douglas is closing more than every fifth branch in Europe - a total of around 500 of the 2,400 perfumeries to date.

Around 2500 of the 20,000 Douglas employees are affected.

The wave of closings is particularly affecting shops in Italy and Spain.

Douglas had put the entire branch network to the test in the past few months because more and more customers were shopping online, reported Müller.

Corona has accelerated this trend again.

The Douglas boss emphasized that she was confident that the reduced branch network "is future-proof for the next few years".

But the trend towards online shopping will continue - how far cannot currently be predicted.

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The 2019/20 financial year, which was shaped by the Covid-19 pandemic, produced mixed results for the company.

Thanks to its strong online presence, Douglas was able to limit the impact of the pandemic on sales.

It fell “only” by 6.4 percent to 3.2 billion euros.

But the operating result (adjusted Ebitda) fell by 16.7 percent to 292 million euros.

And the bottom line was that the group even had to report a loss of 517 million euros, not least because of high value adjustments.

Business on the Internet was particularly excellent.

In the financial year that ended at the end of September, e-commerce sales rose by 40.6 percent to 822 million euros.

In the 2020 calendar year, the perfumery chain even made more than a billion euros in sales on the Internet for the first time, said Müller.

The e-commerce business is just as profitable as the business in the branches.

Across Europe, Douglas’s online sales account for 25.4 percent of sales, and 39.9 percent in the important home market of Germany.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210128-99-204347 / 2

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