Orders at Online Supermarket Gurkerl Have Increased Significantly

The online supermarket Gurkerl, active in Vienna and the surrounding area, now delivers twice as much with an expanded and automated warehouse. The number of current monthly orders has almost doubled compared to October 2024 and is now up to 100,000, the company announced on Thursday.

"Our goal with the transition to a fully automated logistics center was to further improve the shopping experience for our customers - and at the same time make our e-food model as profitable as possible in a high-wage country like Austria," said the newly appointed Gurkerl CEO Olin Novák in a statement. Since the "restart" in October, the online supermarket has delivered to around 50,000 customers according to its own information.

330 Employees at Gurkerl

In the course of the expansion and conversion of the warehouse as well as the reduction of capacity, Gurkerl cut up to 290 jobs at the beginning of 2023 according to media reports. The company itself has never specified the extent of the job cuts. Currently, Gurkerl employs around 330 staff, of which about 100 are drivers and around 190 are employed in the warehouse, according to the online supermarket in response to an APA inquiry. The number has hardly changed since the "relaunch" in October 2024. With the "new" automation in the logistics center in Vienna-Liesing, it is possible to process "a multiple of orders compared to before - with almost the same team size".

The online retailer sells not only supermarket goods but also food from around 200 producers from Vienna and the Vienna area. The food delivery service also offers products that are not available at other supermarkets in Austria, such as baked goods from Öfferl and Joseph Brot as well as food from the British department store chain Marks & Spencer. Additionally, products from Viennese gastronomy businesses are available. Gurkerl currently offers a total of 16,500 products including over-the-counter pharmacy items.

High Investments

The domestic online supermarket is part of the Czech Rohlik Group, founded in 2014. The online retailer is currently active in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, Austria, and Romania. Rohlik has already invested heavily in the Austrian subsidiary, which started in December 2020. As of the end of April 2023, the cumulative balance sheet loss of Gurkerl.at GmbH over several years amounted to around 70 million euros. More recent figures have not yet been published in the commercial register. In the home delivery of groceries, Gurkerl competes for market share alongside Alfies, Billa, Hausfreund, Hofer, and Interspar.

Throughout the year, Gurkerl plans to further expand the "fresh ready meals" segment from popular Viennese restaurants. The private label range is also set to increase from the current 300 to 500 products. The food delivery service currently promises delivery within three hours for normal orders and offers 15-minute delivery windows. Delivery times from order are expected to decrease to under two hours in the long term.

(APA/Red)

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