Ralf Dümmel's company lays off about 30 employees

The "Die Höhle der Löwen" juror has to cut jobs after the merger of his DS Group with Georg Kofler's Social Chain AG.

The DS Group of "Die Höhle der Löwen" juror Ralf Dümmel is cutting almost 30 of its 500 jobs. This is reported by the Hamburger Abendblatt. In October 2021, Dümmel's company was acquired by Social Chain AG from co-juror Georg Kofler for 220 million euros. According to the company, the layoffs affect Lebensmittel-Zeitung Employees in sales, marketing, logistics and purchasing.

In an interview with the Abendblatt , a spokeswoman for the company justified the cuts by citing the overall economic situation. Since the takeover, Social Chain AG's share price has fallen by 90 percent. The layoffs are part of a cost-cutting process and restructuring. Kofler will become the group's chief executive officer on Jan. 1, 2023. Until now, he has been head of the supervisory board with no operational role. Dümmel will move from his position as board member responsible for product, sales and purchasing at Social Chain back to DS Group, where he will once again become sole managing director.

At the time of the acquisition, Social Chain and DS Group had combined sales of more than 600 million euros. The goal was to achieve sales of more than one billion euros in 2023. However, the sales forecast in August 2022 already showed that this was unlikely to happen. As part of the cost-cutting program, the Group has already disposed of smaller subsidiaries.