Matthias Wlaka to join Bonprix Management Board as CIO
Hamburg, 23.11.2023 - On 01 January 2024 Matthias Wlaka is to join the Bonprix Group as the new Managing Director Technology and will lead the company together with Dr. Richard Gottwald (Chairman), Markus Fuchshofen, Dr. Kai Heck and Carolin Klar. Under Wlaka's responsibility in the newly created role of Chief Information Officer (CIO), in future Bonprix's IT activities are to be centrally bundled, synchronized and steered.
The new Bonprix Managing Director Matthias Wlaka is moving from OTTO, where he started in 2013 and most recently held the position of Director of IT. Following the successful replacement of HOST with CORE, further milestones in his successful ten-year career with the company included the IT management of OTTO's transformation into a platform. His leadership oversaw the development of the procedural and technological marketplace setup and accompanied the migration from the retail model to the platform business. At the same time, as a member of the Management Board, the qualified Computer Scientist played a major role in setting up the company's own payment-service provider OTTO Payments. Matthias Wlaka launched his career at management consultancy Accenture and worked there for twelve years, many of them within international project structures.
Marcus Ackermann, Member of the Otto Group Executive Board, Multichannel Distance Selling, comments: "At the Otto Group, Matthias Wlaka has impressively demonstrated his expertise in managing highly complex technology topics within a business model. As the new CIO of our focus company Bonprix I am convinced that he will play a key role in driving IT and digitalisation topics as part of the strategic transformation of this fashion brand."
Dr. Richard Gottwald, CEO of the Bonprix Group, is looking forward to the collaboration: "Matthias Wlaka will be a definite asset to Bonprix. Not only will he maximise our technological clout, we will also gain a strong leadership personality as well as a great colleague who is an outstanding fit with our company culture."
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Media Contact
Martin Zander
+49 40 6461 2820
martin.zander@ottogroup.com
Marleen Kort
+49 40 6462 4053
corporate@bonprix.net
About the Otto Group
Founded in Germany in 1949, today the Otto Group is a globally active retail and services group with around 41,000 employees in 30 major company groups primarily active in the economic regions of Germany, the rest of Europe, and the USA. Its business activities span the Platforms, Brand Concepts, Retailers, Services and Financial Services segments. In the 2022/23 financial year (to 28 February) the Otto Group generated revenues of 16.2 billion euros. With online revenues of approximately 12 billion euros, the Otto Group is one of the world’s largest online retailers. The Group’s particular strength is the broad market presence of its differentiated product assortments and service offers to diverse customer target groups in the world’s relevant economic regions. Numerous strategic partnerships and joint ventures provide the Otto Group with excellent opportunities to transfer know-how and leverage areas of synergy potential. Group companies demonstrate a high degree of corporate responsibility and willingness to collaborate with one another; at the same time this guarantees flexibility, customer proximity and optimal target-group appeal in their respective national markets.
About Bonprix
Bonprix is an internationally successful fashion and e-commerce company. Founded in 1986 as a catalog retailer in Hamburg, Germany, Bonprix now employs around 2,900 people worldwide. More than 16 million active customers in over 25 countries shop clothing and accessories for women, men and children as well as home and living products, primarily in the Bonprix online shops and apps. As a vertical fashion brand, Bonprix exclusively sells its own fashion with an excellent price-performance ratio. In the fiscal year 2022/2023 (February 28, 2023), the Bonprix Group generated sales of EUR 1.76 billion, making it one of the best-performing businesses within the Otto Group. In Germany, www.bonprix.de is one of the highest-grossing online shops and ranks fourth among online shops with fashion as their main product segment.*
(*Source: Ranking top-selling online stores "E-Commerce-Markt Deutschland 2023" by EHI Retail Institute/ecommerceDB)