Otto Group also puts Otto Office up for sale

Things aren’t going well for Otto Group, the German online retail company. After it sold Otto Touristik in June of this year, it’s now looking for a buyer for Otto Office, its office supplies subsidiary. Otto Group has instructed investment bank Rothschild to find a buyer for its reseller.

According to Boss, market observers say the first talks with potential buyers are already underway. Otto Office had an annual turnover of about 200 million euros during the fiscal year 2013/2014 and an EBITDA of 17 to 18 million euros. With these numbers, Otto Office is one of Germany’s biggest online office supplies retailers.

The Hamburg-based company sells more than 20, 000 products from over 150 brand-name manufacturers and most of its customers are small- to medium-sized businesses. Otto Office, based in Hamburg, was founded in 1994 and employs around 300 staffs. It serves mainly the German market, but also has operations in Belgium and France (where it’s called Maxiburo since this year).

People are leaving Otto
Last week the news got out Otto’s long-time CFO Jürgen Schulte-Laggenbeck has announced he will quit his job starting October 1st, 2015. And earlier this year its member of the executive board, Timm Homann (Multichannel Retail) also left the German company. And during last summer Jürgen Habermann, Director of Sales and Staff of Sport Check (a Otto Group subsidiary), has decided to quit his job.