Daraz Group, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group and Pakistan’s largest e-commerce platform, has announced plans to reduce its workforce by 11 per cent.

In a letter to employees posted on the company website Daraz Group chief executive Bjarke Mikkelsen cited the ‘current market reality’ including the ongoing war in Ukraine, inflation and increasing taxes as reasons for the redundancies.

The layoffs will impact all markets in which the group operates, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Mikkelsen wrote: “In the last 12 months, the market environment turned and became extremely difficult with a war in Europe, huge supply chain disruptions, soaring inflation, increasing taxes and removal of essential government subsidies in our markets. Despite these headwinds, we are still growing our business and we have made big progress on our unit economics in the last 12 months. Essentially, we are improving our services faster than that market can hold us back, and this makes me incredibly proud.

“Unfortunately, it’s not enough and we need to do more to adjust the company to the lower growth outlook in the next couple of years. In order to weather the storm, we need to collectively do everything we can to improve profitability and save costs. This includes refocusing on the core business, simplifying the organisation and doing more with less in all departments.”

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