Dive Brief:
- About a week after Glossier announced its first wholesale deal with Sephora, the beauty brand is laying off employees as it moves away from single-channel distribution. The layoffs impact about two dozen employees, according to a letter to employees from CEO Kyle Leahy.
- A source with knowledge on the matter shared the letter with Retail Dive, in which Leahy noted that the brand would also be hiring close to 20 employees in the second half of the year in roles across wholesale, product, supply chain and operations.
- “With a new leadership team in place, our strategy set, and priority initiatives in flight, we now must align our resources appropriately, starting with our team,” Leahy wrote in the letter. “Today we are reorganizing our company to align the structure, scale and talent with our refined strategy.”
Dive Insight:
The shift away from straight DTC selling has meant a second round of layoffs at Glossier in the past eight months as the brand aims to scale sustainably.
In January, the company laid off more than 80 employees, or about a third of its workforce, due to “mistakes” on its path to scale. Now, the brand is reorganizing once again as it shifts into wholesale. In a statement to Retail Dive, Leahy said the layoffs were a way to better meet the company’s omnichannel goals.
“Glossier’s first chapter was almost exclusively focused on a single channel of distribution. Now, we’ve grown, the marketplace has evolved, and our consumers are looking for us to meet them where they are: in-store, online, at retail partners, and around the world,” Leahy said.
Leahy has only been CEO for two months, as she noted in her letter to employees, and her work has focused on developing a new strategy for Glossier. For the moment, that means more employees focused on wholesale, supply chain and product, which Leahy said will “strengthen our business and financial acumen.”
“Aligning our resources and talent with our strategy will enable us to navigate through the near term in a highly dynamic macroeconomic environment, and unlock the long term potential of this brand,” Leahy wrote, adding that she is “energized by the progress we are rapidly making against our omni-channel strategy.”
That strategy has so far included opening a fleet of brick-and-mortar stores, partnering with Sephora, and replatforming the brand website this fall. But it’s been a bumpy year for Glossier, with founder Emily Weiss stepping down from the chief executive spot in May and the brand announcing price hikes a month later due to higher production and shipping costs.
Leahy, however, ended her letter to employees with optimism, saying the “future is bright.”
