Online book retailer Booktopia has axed around 15 per cent of its workforce as it attempts to counter falling sales and ballooning costs.
Booktopia announced the job cuts this morning, part of a huge restructuring aimed at improving earnings by between $12 – $15 million for the current financial year.
The company will increase postage, cut advertising costs, and leases, and implement 30 to 40 redundancies – the latter of which will claw back $4-$5 million in annual wages.
“Letting some of our talented staff go as part of these cost-cutting initiatives is a disappointing but necessary step in these economic times,” said Booktopia chairman Peter George.
Shares are up 31.7 per cent as of 12:30pm today. Prior to this leap, shares were down 80 per cent in the last 12 months, due to falling earnings and a period of board instability which saw founder Tony Nash ousted from the CEO position and a number of board members removed.
