Big minus

Erotic retailer Orion has a financial “hangover”

Two branches have been closed, but the one in Vienna's Lugner City (photo) will remain.

(Bild: Gerald Hofbauer/Kronen Zeitung)

Austrians' sluggish consumer mood is also affecting the erotic industry. Sextoys veteran Orion has recently slipped into the red. The mail-order company, which also operates 13 stores in Austria, had to close two locations and restructure.

In the last two financial years, there have been no major "highs" for adult retailer Orion in Austria. Consumer restraint and the increasing online competition in recent years (e.g. Eis, Amorelie, Venize) have led to a financial "hangover". Added to this is the increasing competition from Chinese mail order companies such as Temu or Shein, which are flooding Europe (not only) with sex toys and lingerie.

Folke Postmeyer, Managing Director of Orion Versand for Austria and Switzerland, comments: "In recent months, we have also felt the general reluctance to buy in our specialist stores and have been forced to close two branches due to changes in location." Specifically, the store in the Auhof Center in Vienna was closed in May 2024 and the store in Wiener Neustadt in September last year. The company currently still operates 13 stores in Austria, for example in Vienna, Innsbruck, Krems, Graz, Pasching, Villach and Klagenfurt.

Loss of almost 800,000 euros in the last financial year
In the 2022/2023 financial year, which ended on June 30, 2023, Orion Versand GmbH & Co KG posted a loss of almost 190,000 euros according to the company register. In the last financial year 2023/2024, the loss then increased to almost 800,000 euros. "Despite negative equity, however, there is no over-indebtedness within the meaning of insolvency law because there are liabilities to the German parent company, Orion Versand GmbH & Co KG, Flensburg, and these liabilities significantly exceed the negative equity," the company register states.

At the same time, according to Orion's management, there is a "positive going concern prognosis", which is, however, linked to restructuring. In the course of this, four of the last 45 employees were given a "pink slip".

At the end of the day, the aim is to achieve a turnaround. "Despite these challenges, we are optimistic about the future: our e-commerce business is developing well and there are also the first signs of a return to a willingness to buy in bricks-and-mortar retail," says Postmeyer confidently.

However, the company is not specifically aiming to be in the black until the next financial year, which begins in July 2025. In the current period, there are therefore unlikely to be any highlights (yet).