This week two executives left the company and union sources detailed that there are workers under multifunction contracts (rotating tasks), a modality that has meant two supermarket chains -Walmart Chile and SMU- face justice.
It has been a complex year for Grupo Falabella, which is present in the market with its eponymous brand, Sodimac, Tottus, Banco Falabella, Falabella.com, MallPlaza and the Ikea franchise.
For example, this week its results for the second quarter of 2023 were released, which marked a 13% decrease in its income (US$ 3,354 million) compared to the same period last year.
“(…) The environment has been more challenging than anticipated, so we have intensified efforts to recover our profitability, adding new initiatives to the plan,” said Gaston Bottazzini, general manager of Falabella.
And also a few days ago, two other pieces of news linked to the company were released: the first is that its retail unit reported that it will close its multistore located in Mallplaza Sur in the commune of San Bernardo (Chile) on October 1, a space that It will be used by the Swedish H&M. The reason? the end of the lease contract, for which the reason for non-renewal was not detailed (for a similar reason in March a store in Central Station closed).
And the second was that Falabella Financiero communicated the integration of functionalities of its Fpay digital wallet to the Banco Falabella app, both in Chile and Peru. Fpay, among other features, allowed customers to make payments with their cell phones in stores. The cessation of the application will be gradual, starting September 1; and the functionality will be subject to the Bank's app.
TWO EXECUTIVES LEAVE AND WORKERS WOULD BE IN MULTIFUNCTION
Today it was learned that two important executives left the company this week.
They were Alejandro Delgado and Daniel Berdichevsky.
The first had a career of at least 15 years in the firm and was in charge of Falabella Inmobiliario. Berdichevsky, meanwhile, was a real estate development and projects manager, Diario Financiero detailed.
The same media provided another piece of information that could mean more problems for Grupo Falabella: union sources assured that there are workers under multifunction contracts (that is, they perform tasks that are not fixed, since they change from time to time).
It is worth remembering that supermarket chains, such as Lider (Walmart Chile) and SMU (Unimarc), suffered judicial setbacks for these types of contracts.
As of June of this year, the company recorded a payroll of 9,000 fewer workers compared to the same month last year.
Of course, they have been emphatic in pointing out that this reduction considers not only separations, but also "reductions due to natural rotation in the units."
