Casper Sleep announced cost-cutting measures, including layoffs of 21% of its corporate workforce, as it seeks to become profitable despite the coronavirus crisis.
The bed-in-a-box pioneer will also wind down its European operations as part of an effort to reduce operating costs by more than $10 million on an annualized basis.
“We remain committed to our timeline to achieve positive EBITDA profitability by mid-year 2021,” Casper said Tuesday in a news release.
The cost-cutting moves come two months after Casper went public with an IPO that met with a frosty reception from investors. In March, it announced it would shut down its stores, furloughing all retail employees, in response to coronavirus lockdowns.
Casper shares, which initially traded at $14.50 after the IPO, fell 3.7% in trading Tuesday as the company also said Greg Macfarlane is stepping down as CFO and chief operating officer after a two-year tenure.
Macfarlane will “assume a senior executive role outside of the sleep industry” and his “departure is not related to any financial performance, policy, or control issues or any disagreements on accounting or financial reporting matters,” Casper said.
The layoffs of 78 corporate employees announced Tuesday include the 31 people located at Casper’s European headquarters in Germany.
“It’s a startling fall for a company that as recently as last year was valued at $1.1 billion,” Fast Company said.
Casper said it had “seen significant strength in our e-commerce business in Q2 to date, with e-commerce sales well above expectations and multi-year high e-commerce marketing efficiency, thanks in part to the changing consumer behavior and dislocations in the media landscape.”
“We believe our strong balance sheet position, with approximately $116 million in cash as of the end of Q1 2020, continues to provide us with the flexibility and resiliency to weather this dynamic environment and position us for future growth,” it added.
According to its IPO prospectus, Casper incurred net losses of $92 million and $73 million in 2018 and 2017, respectively.
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