Juul CEO Lays Out Plans for ‘Sustainable Path’ to Steady Firm
- E-cigarette maker won’t ‘scale for the sake of expansion:’ CEO
- Cutting 900 jobs on top of 650 last year slashes workforce 40%
Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg
Juul Labs Inc. will lay off a third of its workforce, exit several countries and relocate its headquarters in an effort to set the e-cigarette giant on “a sustainable path” after declining sales and a regulatory crackdown forced the company to rethink its strategy, Chief Executive Officer K.C. Crosthwaite explained in a virtual meeting with employees Tuesday.
Cutting 900 jobs will help “to align the organization with where we are today,” Crosthwaite said in an email after the meeting, which was streamed around the globe to employees, who could submit questions on Slack. Taken on top of the 650 positions eliminated late last year, Juul will have slashed its workforce by almost 40% in one year. It’s a dramatic turn for a company that was hiring 300 people a month at one point.