Shock! Two leading retailers announced layoffs!

In the past two years, there has been a steady stream of news about bankruptcies, layoffs, and closures of major retailers, including some former industry leaders.

In the home furnishing category alone, many top sellers have gone bankrupt. Recently, Amazon’s top brands have also begun to announce large-scale layoffs!

Amazon's top brands are laying off employees

The much-anticipated 2024 Amazon Prime Day will be held on July 16-17 this year, but before the mid-year promotion, Emma Sleep, a major home furnishing brand on Amazon Europe and considered the world's top DTC sleep product brand, could not hold on and announced the layoff of 200 employees! This accounts for 18% of the company's total number of employees.

As the world's top DTC sleep product brand, Emma Sleep was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. Its main products include mattresses, beds, pillows, duvets and other home bedding. Its main brand Emma was registered in 2015. In 2017, the company acquired the Dunlopillo brand for an undisclosed price. Subsequently, Emma Sleep sold products in more than 30 markets around the world under the two major brands of Emma and Dunlopillo, with mattress sales alone exceeding 1.5 million.

As soon as the news of layoffs came out, there was an uproar in the industry.

Industry insiders speculate that Emma Sleep's massive layoffs are likely to result in major changes to operations and supply chains. After all, Emma Sleep has not experienced the same unfavorable performance decline as many big sellers that have laid off employees.

You should know that in 2023, Emma Sleep's revenue exceeded US$1 billion, with a year-on-year revenue growth of 13%, and it achieved profitability for the sixth consecutive year.

A little earlier in 2022, under the premise of turbulent performance of the e-commerce market for bulk products in Europe, Emma Sleep's annual revenue reached US$948 million, an increase of 35% compared to 2021, achieving the previously set revenue target of US$869 million.

However, the glory fell in an instant. A few days ago, Emma Sleep suddenly announced layoffs. It was not an easy decision for a German company to carry out such a large-scale layoff.

Emma originally planned to expand its business and diversify its product portfolio by 2024, and integrated new operational and financial systems to maintain service excellence during growth. Judging from the current situation, it can be seen that the problems Emma Sleep encountered in implementing a series of operational and supply chain changes were more complicated than expected. Coupled with the turbulent global economic situation and the impact of its main e-commerce business, the company had to make such a choice.

Different from Emma Sleep's strategic adjustment and layoffs, major vacuum cleaner manufacturers have also been laying off employees recently.

Vacuum cleaner giant Dyson to cut 1,000 jobs in UK

According to the Financial Times, Dyson, a well-known electrical appliance brand and vacuum cleaner manufacturer, announced that it will lay off about 1,000 employees in the UK, accounting for nearly 30% of the total local employees. Currently, there are 3,500 employees in the UK.

The layoffs will affect all departments, including management. It is understood that this decision has nothing to do with the British general election, as the company had decided to lay off employees before the election.

"From time to time we review our global structure to ensure we are ready for the future," Dyson Chief Executive Hanno Kirner said in an emailed statement. "As a result, we are proposing changes to our organization that may result in job losses."

The company said it was reassessing its business because it faced "increasing competition in the global market".