Zalando shuts its Erfurt hub this month. 109 workers are suing over the layoffs

The site has already stopped sending parcels to customers. Zalando’s Erfurt logistics centre closes at the end of September, fourteen years after it opened. More than 2,000 people were dismissed, out of about 2,700 who worked there. Around 500 of them are Polish.

Zalando announced the closure in January, then integrated About You

The company told staff in January 2026 and gave one reason: it is rebuilding its European logistics network after buying About You. The plan leaves 14 logistics centres across seven countries. Gießen, Lahr and Mönchengladbach stay. Erfurt does not.

109 unfair dismissal claims sit at the Erfurt labour court

Former staff filed 109 claims, spread across all six chambers of the court. Conciliation hearings on 28 August ended without agreement. More conciliation is scheduled into November. If nothing settles, the trial date is 19 March 2027. A social plan was agreed with worker representatives in early July.

Five hundred Polish workers face the same month twice

The centre drew people from more than 70 nationalities, and the Polish group is the largest single foreign one. Some moved to Thuringia specifically for the job. Whole families worked on the same site, so one closure notice ends two or three incomes at once.

What a warehouse closure says about the fashion e-commerce squeeze

Zalando is consolidating while demand moves around it. German online shops lost 16.7 percent of organic visibility over a year. Platforms keep pushing into the same baskets, as when YouTube opened shopping affiliate links in Germany. And headcount is falling across the industry, from 220 editorial jobs at Reach to agency networks.

Two dates now matter. The last shift in Erfurt runs out at the end of September, which is this week and next. Then nothing moves until conciliation resumes in November, and if that fails the court hears the 109 claims on 19 March 2027.