The famous electronic cigarette manufacturer Juul Labs plans to lay off 500 people before the end of this year. This is the part of the company’s restructuring plan, aimed at repairing it and the relationship between the regulatory authorities. The e-cigarette manufacturing giant will also cut its marketing budget and use a variety of methods to limit the use of e-cigarettes by minors.
The company said in a statement that the layoffs were part of a review of the company’s actions and policies by KC Rothwaite, CEO of the company.
The layoffs accounted for about 10%-15% of the company’s total workforce. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and currently employs approximately 4,100 people. In 2015, Juul was a small start-up, and now they have achieved massive growth. By the end of last year, the company had a valuation of $38 billion, and the monthly recruitment was about 300.
A Juul spokesperson said that the layoffs will involve multiple divisions of the company and added that all laid-off employees will receive severance payments and a prorated performance bonus.
What Juul Comments On This?
CEO K.C. Crosthwaite said: ‘As the vapor category undergoes a necessary reset, this reorganization will help Juul Labs focus on reducing underage use, investing in scientific research, and creating new technologies while earning a license to operate in the U.S. and around the world.’
Earlier this month, Juul stopped selling all fruit-flavored e-cigarettes. But the Trump administration is expected to ban all sales of flavored e-cigarettes on the market. Alex Azar, the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, told the media that Juul’s suspension of sales would not affect the implementation of Trump’s government plan.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently researching tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes to come up with a solution, and a regulation proposed by the department last year has so far received more than 522,000 comments.
Mithc Zeller, head of the FDA’s Tobacco Products Center, said last week that the department is “working hard” to ban the sale of electronic cigarettes.