Temu doubles its EU profits with just eight employees

The Chinese online marketplace Temu’s EU operations more than doubled pretax profits last year to just below $120m (£90m) despite employing just eight people, accounts show.

- Sarah Butler

They rose 171% in the 12 months to December 2024 compared with the $44.1m the year before, as shoppers snapped up its low-cost goods, which are widely promoted on social media.

However, the company paid just $18m in corporation tax, almost $3m of which was a mandatory top-up tax brought in at the end of 2023 after the EU signed up to a global minimum tax rate for large companies.

The accounts filed for the group’s Ireland-based EU parent group, Whaleco Technology, showed revenues rose to $1.7bn, compared with $758m the previous year, before new controls on the super-budget retailer.

Separate documents show Temu now has more than 115 million customers across the EU - equivalent to more than a quarter of the population.