AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT STITCH FIX (07/15/23)

JULY 15, 2023 — 393 EMPLOYEES IN BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA

The company is not renewing its lease and will be closing its Bethlehem, Pennsylvania distribution center with layoffs scheduled between September 2023 to February 2024.

The Dallas distribution center is also expected to close in 2024 as the company moves from its current five-distribution center network to a three-distribution center network.

JANUARY 5, 2023 — 20% OF THE SALARIED WORKFORCE TO BE LAID OFF, AND A FACILITY CLOSURE IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH.

A message from our Founder…

Today, I’m writing to share two significant changes. Firstly, I’m sharing the difficult news that we will be reducing the size of the Stitch Fix team by about 20% of salaried positions. In addition, we are closing our Salt Lake City distribution center, where our team is also impacted. We will be losing many talented team members from across the company and I am truly sorry. Everyone will get an email soon letting you know what this means for you.

Our priority today is to ensure that those leaving Stitch Fix are supported in their transition,

To those impacted: You took a chance on Stitch Fix, trusted us with your time and investment of yourself, and I am sincerely sorry that we are parting ways with you in this way today. Thank you for your hard work, dedication, and the many moments of joy and meaning that brought to your teams, our community, and our clients. Your contributions will have a lasting impact on our business and our culture, and for that we are all grateful. I know many of you will want to reach out to others within the Stitch Fix community, so your access to email and Slack will be open until later this afternoon.

Second, I also wanted to share that Elizabeth and the Board of Directors have made the difficult decision that Elizabeth will be stepping down as CEO to make room for a new leader. I am grateful for Elizabeth’s many contributions as President and then as CEO, and am thankful for her leadership during what has been an unprecedented time for our business and the world. Effective today, I will be stepping in as interim CEO and leading the search process for our next CEO. Despite the challenging moment we are in right now, the board and I still deeply believe in the Stitch Fix business, mission and vision. We know because of the hard work and foundation laid by this team that there is a great future available for this company and we are committed to getting the company on a path to achieve it.

All the best,

Katrina

OCTOBER 8, 2022 — FACILITY CLOSURES IN PENNSYLVANIA

The company is closing its sewing factory in Mohnton, Pennsylvania, and its knitting mill in Shillington, Pennsylvania. Facility closures are scheduled for October 28, 2022, with layoffs scheduled in stages beginning December 2, 2022.

According to a company statement, “As we focus on the strategies that support our return to profitable growth, notably increasing our number of active clients and optimizing our cost base, we have made the incredibly difficult decision to close our operations at Mohnton Mills. While this is the right decision for our business, it is a hard day for our team. We are committed to supporting them with severance payments that increase with tenure, extended healthcare, recruitment resources, and other benefits.”

JUNE 10, 2022 — STITCH FIX RESTRUCTURING WITH 330 LAYOFFS

The company has announced that it is laying off 15% of its salaried workers, or about 330 people, mostly in corporate roles and styling leadership positions.

According to Stitch Fix CEO Elizabeth Spaulding, “in light of our recent business momentum and an uncertain macroeconomic environment, we've taken a renewed look at our business and what is required to build our future. While this was an incredibly difficult decision, it was one needed to make to position ourselves for profitable growth.”

FEBRUARY 5, 2021 — CONTINUING BREAK-AWAY FROM CALIFORNIA WITH WAREHOUSE CLOSURE

The company continues to relocate operations outside of California with the closure of its San Francisco, California warehouse and the layoff of 182 employees by April 30, 2021.

The company’s other warehouse/distribution centers are located in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Texas, and Indiana, where it has two facilities. An additional facility in Salt Lake City, Utah to serve the West Coast will be completed in October 2021.

JUNE 19, 2020 — Original post…

San Francisco, California-based Stitch Fix, an online clothing and accessories shopping platform based on algorithmic offerings and consultant-driven personal styling services, has announced that the company plans a major reduction in force as it prepares to expand its operations outside of California. The layoffs, scheduled to occur between July and September 2020, will impact 1,400 employees who function as "stylists" and operate remotely.

Stitch Fix noted that the layoffs were a strategic business decision and not related to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to a company spokesperson, "We have taken the very difficult decision to reduce the number of stylists in our styling team in California, as we invest in our other styling hubs across the U.S., and the innovations that will help evolve our experience in the future. All of our California-based stylists will be offered the opportunity to relocate to the new roles in other states, Any decision that impacts our hardworking and talented people is incredibly tough, but we believe this is the right thing to do for our business.”

The company plans to invest in lower-cost hubs in Austin and Dallas,Texas; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Cleveland, Ohio, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

It appears that the decision may have been driven by California's hostile business environment which recently classified independent full and part-time contractors as company employees, eligible to receive costly company benefits available to other company employees.

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?

AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT WW/WEIGHT WATCHERS (05/06/25)

MAY 6, 2025 — BANKRUPTCY

WW International, Inc., the global leader in science-backed weight management, and certain of its affiliates, announced today that it will implement a financial reorganization transaction that will bolster its financial position, increase investment flexibility in its strategic growth initiatives, and better serve its millions of members around the world.

The Transaction will eliminate $1.15 billion in debt from the Company’s balance sheet, and position WeightWatchers for long-term growth and success. With this improved financial foundation, the Company is well equipped to execute its transformation plan, which includes innovating its digital and member experience and accelerating the expansion of its telehealth business which delivered 57% year-over-year revenue growth in Q1 2025.

WeightWatchers remains fully operational during the reorganization process and there will be no impact to members or the plans they rely on to support their weight management goals. WeightWatchers’ holistic model of care—including its no. 1 doctor-recommended weight loss program, telehealth offering with access to obesity-trained clinicians and prescription weight-loss medications, and virtual and in-person workshops—remain fully operational during the reorganization process. All trade creditors and other general unsecured creditors will be paid in full. Additionally, the Company intends to remain a publicly traded company upon emergence from the process.

The agreement entered into is between WeightWatchers and holders of approximately 72% of the outstanding principal amount of the Company’s term loan facility, revolving credit facility, and 4.5% senior secured notes, who have committed their support for the Transaction. To effectuate the Transaction, WeightWatchers has voluntarily initiated “pre-packaged” chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The Company expects to move through this process swiftly, with the goal of emerging from the court-supervised reorganization process in approximately 45 days, if not sooner.

FEBRUARY 18, 2025 — BIG TROUBLE AHEAD?

WW International and advisors to its lenders have reportedly taken a step toward discussing potentially restructuring the company’s debt as an alternative to bankruptcy.

As contained within an SEC 8 filing, “We continue to actively evaluate our capital structure and intend to explore transactions to strengthen our balance sheet and increase our financial flexibility. We look forward to engaging with our lenders and bondholders in the coming months.”

It appears that the key obstacle to profitability is the widespread use of weight loss drugs which produce dramatic results in short time periods.

MAY 27, 2020 — Original post…

New York, New York-based WW, formerly Weightwatchers, a company dedicated to assisting individuals in losing weight and improving their lifestyle, is continuing to restructure the company to broaden its focus from weight loss to lifestyle and wellness as well as reposition the company as a technology-based enterprise.

The company recently conducted a mass layoff, estimated by some, to include thousands of part-time and full-time employees. The company acknowledges the reduction in force but refuses to disclose further details. What was different was the extent to which the company used voice-only Zoom calls to inform the employees of the bad news.

While WW CEO Nick Hotchkin declined to state the number of employees laid off or the number of employees terminated by Zoom calls, he did comment, “It wasn’t practical to have all of the conversations be one on one. Even as we start a phased reopening of some of our locations, we know our business will continue to be impacted by this crisis. That was the context in which we decided to restructure our studio business, and make substantial changes to our corporate structure and workforce.”

Prior to the Chinese Virus pandemic which curtailed significant customer interaction with nation-wide group leaders, the company was attempting to position itself as a technology company with a content-rich platform and technology-enabled interaction with its client base. The company has previously announced a target of $100 million in cost savings that included a reduction in force, salary cuts, and a reorganization of a labor-intensive operation to one that benefited from increased automation.

According to the company's earnings call to investors...

"WW is a technology company delivering a human experience. Our transformation from primarily offline to a digitally enabled experience has been underway for several years, with all members enjoying the tools, features, content and connect community available in the WW app. In mid-March to ensure the health and safety of our members and our coaches, we proactively pivoted from in-person workshops for our global studio members, which represent approximately 25% of our overall membership to an entirely virtual experience. Over six days sprint, our studio operations, technology and digital product teams developed a solution for our coaches to host their workshops virtually. We trained over 14,000 coaches and guides globally for virtual workshop, and created Connect groups for each studio, so that members can continue to engage with each other, inside the WW ecosystem in between workshop. The move to virtual workshops has accelerated our digital first strategy. While face-to-face experiences will always be a core part of WW, we are strategically repositioning our studio business to have a smaller real estate footprint with fewer locations."

The company has struggled in recent years from declining participation, changing consumer tastes, and the proliferation of free and engaging diet and wellness apps.

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?

AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT ALLSCRIPTS

Chicago, Illinois-based Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc. a provider of practice management and electronic medical records software, is attempting to drastically reduce operational costs in this economically challenging time.

It is estimated that Allscripts reduced its headcount by 5% - 10% with a 15%-30% six-month pay reductions for the highest earners. Almost all contract employees have been laid off.

From the earnings call…

"Shortly after our last call, we hired the firm, AlixPartners, to assist us in this effort, and we have been working with an experienced team of their advisors for the last seven weeks to identify and capture margin improvement opportunities. From the last week of March through the end of April, we have implemented permanent reductions to our cost structure, representing $75 million in annualized value. These reductions across all functional disciplines of the company, but all we're focused on low-value work and redundancies. So we expect that delivery of value and responsiveness to our clients will actually improve as a result of these actions."

According to a company statement...

“Looking ahead, we believe Allscripts will likely be impacted as our clients focus on responding to the pandemic and caring for their patients. However, we believe Allscripts’ agility and prior strategic platform investments prepare us to handle the challenges resulting from this global uncertainty. We fully intend to align with existing and new clients to capitalize on opportunities to deploy value-added solutions. Allscripts has multiple competitive advantages, including a robust solutions portfolio, a diversified global client base, and high recurring revenues, positioning us well as we chart the path back to a more normalized operating environment.”

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?