Cleveron lays off 20 percent of staff as 2023 proves to be loss-making year
Estonian robotic parcels solutions tech firm Cleveron is laying off 20 percent of its workforce, regional daily Sakala says, reporting 2023 as a forth loss-making year in a row, albeit not as severely as the previous three years.
Cleveron says the layoffs are the result of the closure of unprofitable business lines, with the unemployment fund (Töötukassa) being notified of 38 people will be made redundant, 21 of them from Viljandi County, where around 75 percent of the company's operations are, and with production and development taking the biggest hit.
The company board set a goal of reaching a profit for this year after making losses of close to €13 million in the preceding three years, but, CEO Arti Kütt noted, this goal will not be reached for 2023 – though losses are likely to be lower than the €2.7 million posted last year (Cleveron's turnover doubled 2020-2021, however, to €26 million).
Kütt added that the company cannot continue to cover losses via the profits earned in earlier, good years, while both the situation globally and a revised strategic focus were factors in the changes Cleveron is making.
Sakala reports that Cleveron's heyday remains in the pre-coronavirus period of 2018 and 2019 when it obtained large-scale international exposure and picked up U.S. retail giants Walmart as a client; in 2018, turnover was €48 million, net profit €7.6 million, while in 2019 those figures were €66 million and €12.7 million respectively.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
Source: Postimees - Sakala
