Despite the increase in home delivery requests, Gorillas is encountering difficulties in terms of management in particular.
Employees of the Parisian warehouse Gorillas de Bastille declared Monday blocking the site to protest against a wave of “unfair dismissals» and the «psychological pressurewithin the home shopping delivery specialist. “We are about thirty on strike in front of the site. We block access, it doesn’t work anymore“, told AFP Arnaud Coulibaly, responsible for delivery on site. “If we don’t have a response from the management we asked to meet, we will continue“.
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“Gorillas delivers in 5 minutes, turns in 10 minutes“, denounces the sign of one of the strikers. “Employees demand an end to aggressive management and arbitrary dismissals“, abounds the CGT in a press release. “In recent weeks, there has been a wave of unfair dismissals, without valid reason“, assured Mr. Coulibaly. “Each time, they find a fallacious pretext. Maybe Gorillas is out of moneyhe wonders.
According to him, his warehouse still had around 70 people until recently, but around 15 of them have recently been made redundant. “It’s the same everywhere on the other sites.“, he continues. “Management puts too much psychological pressure, people can’t take it anymore“.
Gorillas, profitable?
Gorillas, which presents itself as a European leader in its sector, is however struggling to be profitable and has encountered tightening financing conditions in recent months due to inflation and the war in Ukraine. The German company, which claims 14,000 employees and a presence in 60 cities around the world, thus announced at the end of May the elimination of 300 administrative positions in order to improve its profitability.
In France, the Casino distribution group indicated at the end of 2021 that it would soon enter the capital of Gorillas, which for its part finalized in March the acquisition of its competitor Frichti in a sector in search of consolidation. Contacted, the management of Gorillas had not reacted.
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