DUBLIN: Europe’s busiest online fashion retailer is to create up to 200 jobs in Dublin in the coming years as it attempts to keep pace with its rapid expansion.
German company Zalando announced the jobs at the opening of its new insights centre in the Warehouse Building on Barrow Street on Dublin’s Silicon Docks once occupied by Dogpatch Labs.
Zalando is locating in Ireland to meet the growing demand for top quality candidates in the field of research and development, big data analysis, data science and engineering, the company said yesterday.
Understanding our customers, and gaining deep insights into their purchasing patterns and their behaviour online means we can provide them with a personalised and compelling offering,” said Zalando co-founder Robert Gentz.
Investing to understand these insights has driven our growth since the earliest days of our company and has been the key to our success. The new Zalando Fashion Insights Centre in Dublin will play a major role as we continue to lead online fashion and grow our presence across Europe,” he said.
Headquartered in Berlin, the fashion chain was founded in 2008 by Mr Gentz and David Schneider. Today, the company has a presence in 15 European countries selling fashion clothing, sports gear and shoes to close to 15m customers.
After over six years of operation its business has grown to €2.2bn in revenue in 2014, with an earnings before interest and tax margin of 2.8%.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the arrival of Zalando to the Dublin Docklands underpins the country’s reputation as the tech capital of Europe and highlights the quality of graduates available to multinationals looking to relocate here.
The deal is somewhat of an exception to the rule given that most multinationals establishing operations here have tended to be from the US rather than our European neighbours.
Dublin is a serious contender for any online company looking to expand operations in Europe given the large cluster of digital companies operating here,” IDA chief executive Martin Shanahan at yesterday’s event.
