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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Business
Ruby Flanagan

Wayfair to axe 1,750 jobs as part of cost-cutting plans to save £1billion

Online furniture company Wayfair is set to cut 1,750 jobs - around 10% of its global workforce - as part of its $1.4billion (£1.1billion) cost-saving drive.

The job cuts include reducing its corporate employees by 18% - around 1,200 jobs - as it looks to scale down operating costs.

In a message to its staff shared on Friday, Wayfair CEO and Co-Founder Niraj Shah said it was "difficult news" to share but the decision had been made as it worked on "reshaping" the business for the future.

The CEO said that conversations with the firm's European staff who are affected by the cuts had already begun but talks with staff based in North America were going to begin soon.

Around 1,750 Wayfair jobs are to be cut from its global workforce (Bloomberg via Getty Images)

It is unsure how many British staff will be affected by the redundancies.

Wayfair, which is headquartered in Boston in the US, has a UK head office in London and a warehouse in Lutterworth in Leicestershire.

Wayfair said the cuts would largely affect the "management layers" of the business.

The furniture brand said it was to support those who are to lose their jobs and said it will be offering a severance pay based on each individual circumstance.

This pay however will also vary by country, tenure and level and will follow local regulations.

Wayfair said that over its 20-year run, the company had "over complicated things" and "lost sight of some of our fundamentals" and "simply grew too big".

Niraj Shah added: "To those who will be departing Wayfair, I want to thank you for your contributions to the company and for the impact you’ve had on your colleagues.

"As co-founders, Steve and I have had an opportunity to work with many wonderful people over the years, and this group stands out for its depth of talent and experience, and we’re deeply saddened these changes will take us in different directions.

"We’re grateful for what you’ve done and you can be so proud of your accomplishments."

This is the second "organisational reduction" the company has seen in the last six months as it cut 870 positions last August.

After making these cuts, Wayfair believes it will allow them to "drive even sharper retail pricing" and assist the growth of the company.

The retailer expects to incur between $68million (£55million) and $78million (£63million) of costs in the first quarter of 2023 as a result of the workforce reduction.

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