MW: Wayfair laying off 1,650 employees, weeks after CEO urged staff to work harder

19/01/2024

MARKETWATCH reports:

(Wayfair shares climbed in premarket trades Friday after the home-goods retailer announced a plan to cut approximately 13% of its workforce)

Wayfair Inc. shares rose 15.6% in premarket trades Friday after the home-goods retailer announced a workforce reduction involving approximately 1,650 employees. The cuts represent approximately 13% of the company’s global workforce and approximately 19% of its corporate team as of Dec. 31, 2023.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the cuts come just weeks after the company’s CEO Niraj Shah sent a memo to staff asking them to work harder. The memo subsequently went viral.

In a statement released early Friday, Wayfair W, -0.91% said that its workforce-realignment plan is expected to deliver annualized cost savings of more than $280 million.

“While today’s actions will bolster our Adjusted EBITDA roadmap, I am increasingly focused on generating Adjusted EBITDA in excess of equity-based compensation as well as capital expenditures, and intend to drive meaningful improvements here quickly,” Wayfair CEO Shah said in the statement. “We believe that what matters is maximizing our Free Cash Flow while simultaneously tightly controlling and ultimately reducing total share count, and are treating this as our north star.”

The full post is here.