Levi Strauss to Cut Up to 15% of Employees After Predicting Weak 2024 Outlook The company announced its fiscal Q4 2023 earnings on Thursday.
By Emily Rella
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
American staple outfitter Levi Strauss announced on Thursday that it will terminate up to 15% of its global workforce in the first half of this year due to a restructuring plan.
Between 10% and 15% of corporate employees could be affected by the cuts but the company did not specify how many employees specifically were at risk of termination, though it noted that the company has roughly 19,000 employees in retail and corporate globally.
The news comes on the heels of a week sales outlook prediction from the denim company upon reporting fiscal Q4 2023 earnings on Thursday, where the company reported that it expected net revenue to grow just 1% to 3% year over year in 2024.
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This was much lower than Wall Street's prediction of 4.7% growth year over fiscal year.
Net revenue for all of fiscal 2023 was "flat" as compared to fiscal 2022.
Sweeping changes are also expected as President and CEO of Levi Strauss & Co. Chip Bergh steps down and is succeeded by incoming President and CEO Michelle Gass, though it has not yet been specified when exactly that will ocurr in the weeks ahead.
"We have a strong pipeline of newness and innovation launching this year to fuel consumer demand. And I am confident in the significant growth opportunities ahead for this company including accelerating international growth, becoming a denim apparel lifestyle business, and leading with DTC," Gass said in a company release. "The success of these strategic initiatives drove our growth in the fourth quarter and position us to create outsized long-term shareholder value in the years ahead."
The company is also planning to sunset its body-positive Denizen brand and redirect focus to athleisure categories, such as its Beyond Yoga brand, which saw a 14% quarterly increase.
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"There's been a lot of volatility this past year," Gass said in the earnings call. "We are taking a cautious approach as we look forward."
Levi Strauss & Co. was down just over 12% year over year as of Friday morning.
