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Photo: Jens Kalaene / dpa
Don't cry for happiness: the days when the online fashion retailer Zalando was able to impress with double-digit growth rates seem to be over for the time being.
High inflation, fears of recession and a gloomy mood among many consumers are currently causing the Dax group to slack.
Now the company - which was one of the big winners during the corona pandemic - has drastically cut its goals for the current year.
While analysts weren't surprised by the drop, they were surprised by the extent of it.
Zalando now wants to put the brakes on costs.
The share collapsed on Friday morning and has since fallen by up to 18 percent to EUR 20.94, below its 2014 IPO price of EUR 21.50.
By the end of trading in the early evening, however, the papers had recovered: they closed at 25.14 euros a good one and a half percent in the red.
The downward trend is still continuing after the Corona price boom has been history for a while.
During the peak phase of the pandemic, Zalando had long benefited from the flourishing online trade.
In the summer of last year, the price reached a record high of EUR 105.90, which means that the company was worth almost EUR 28 billion at the time.
In the meantime it is only about 6.6 billion euros.
The current environment is having a negative impact on financial development, commented co-boss Robert Gentz on the situation, according to the company announcement that was distributed on Thursday evening.
Zalando is now assuming "macroeconomic challenges that will last longer and be more intense than initially assumed".
According to initial estimates, the second quarter is likely to be weaker than expected and remain "significantly" below analysts' expectations.
It can no longer be assumed that consumer sentiment will recover in the short term, Zalando justified the lowering of the forecast.
dop/dpa
