Wildling founder Anna Yona announces further massive staff cuts

Anna Yona made perhaps the most difficult and at the same time most important decision of her professional career in the jungle of Costa Rica. At least that's what the 48-year-old tells it. She had previously fought for her company Wildling for months, had already laid off 40 of the 280 employees and drastically reduced costs. She knew that if she continued as before, her business, with which she sold barefoot shoes from her home in the Bergisches Land, would hit the wall.

The costs ate up the profits and the sales no longer kept up. So Yona had worked so hard that she couldn't do it anymore, that she needed a break, and she flew to Central America: to somehow switch off, think calmly about the problems. At the end of the stay she had her co-managing director on the line and she realized: No matter what we do, we can't avoid the worst. Wildling had to become even smaller, and that meant that in order for the company to survive, another 120 employees had to leave. And as quickly as possible. Anna Yona saw no other option than a radical shrinkage – after years of wild growth.