Home goods company Wayfair to cut 1,750 employees

US home goods company Wayfair, which has a small presence in Ireland, announced it will slash 10% of its overall workforce, or 1,750 employees.

US home goods company Wayfair, which has a small presence in Ireland, announced it will slash 10% of its overall workforce, or 1,750 employees.

The e-commerce company employs around 600 people in Ireland, but it remains unclear if the Boston firm’s Irish operations will be affected by the cuts. In a statement, the company said: 

In hindsight, similar to our technology peers, we scaled our spend too quickly over the last few years. 

“The good news for Wayfair is that we have operated in a highly productive and efficient way for the vast majority of our 20 year history, and we are now simply returning to that.”

The cuts will include approximately 1,200 or 18% of corporate employees. Wayfair said its efforts to slim down are part of a plan to right-size its cost structure.

In 2018, the company announced plans to increase its headcount at its base in Galway from 400 to 600.

“All of our geographies with corporate employees were impacted,” the company told the Irish Examiner.

The company struggled with sales declining for more than a year after revenue boomed during the early stages of the pandemic when US shoppers spent on fixing up their houses.

Wayfair’s shares have fallen about 75% in the past 12 months.

The company said it expects to incur between approximately $68m (€62m) and $78m of costs — such as severance and benefit costs — as a result of its workforce reduction.

• Additional reporting Bloomberg