The Otto mail order company, which is part of the Hamburg trading and service group Otto Group, will have to do without Bodo Kipper in the future.
The previous divisional director for trade and marketplace left the company at the end of the 2023/24 financial year in order to “take on new challenges outside the Otto Group,” the parent company explained on Friday. The reason for the departure was “different opinions about the strategic direction of the Otto Group’s individual company,” according to a statement. However, the separation took place “in the best of mutual agreement”.
Kipper took over his position at Otto in 2020 and, according to the company, has since shaped “the successful transformation of Otto.de’s overall business from retailer to platform”. He was also responsible for “the entire digitization and automation process of our own trading business as well as business with platform partners”. In doing so, he carried out “not least the fundamental and successful reorganization of Otto’s category management”.
Kipper’s previous areas of responsibility will now be taken over by Marc Opelt, Katy Roewer and Michael Müller-Wünsch, the three remaining members of the divisional board, “on an interim basis and in addition to their previous tasks” until further notice. The group of companies explained that the Otto Group’s board of directors would decide on a “final solution” “at a later date”.