Glossier Lays Off Employees Following Shift in Strategy
Layoffs have ensued at Glossier as it refocuses its distribution strategy.
The brand, a previous direct-to-consumer darling that unveiled a retail partnership with Sephora last week, has laid off 24 employees as it streamlines to meet the needs of its omnichannel strategy under freshly minted chief executive officer Kyle Leahy.
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“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 in a statement. “We are reorganizing our company to align our structure, scale and talent with our refined omnichannel strategy. While these decisions are incredibly difficult, I am confident Glossier is positioned for success in its next chapter.”
In an internal memo obtained from an anonymous source by WWD, Leahy noted that the company is “reorganizing our company to align the structure, scale and talent with our refined strategy.”
The note also mentioned that the company is adding shy of 20 new employees “to support key areas and priority initiatives, including in wholesale, product, supply chain and operations.”
Down the line, the brand will be “elevating our product road map, launching our partnership with Sephora in early 2023, re-platforming our website in fall 2022, and opening an exciting pipeline of new stores across major cities in the U.S., culminating with our return to SoHo with our NYC flagship in early 2023,” Leahy said in the note.
According to 2021 year-end data from The NPD Group, “Instabrands” — the class of brands encompassing Glossier and Jeffree Star, among others — declined the most last year out of any other brand type in the U.S. prestige market.
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