Two logistics technology firms just pulled the rug out from under their employees.
In the wake of the layoffs, fired workers have questions.
“We all got off the phone very confused because they had just raised all that money a few weeks ago and had a $1.3 billion valuation,” another anonymous laid-off employee told Insider.
In the six months leading up to the funding raise, Stord grew its headcount from 400 to 700. It looked to be in a comfortable position, with over 1,000 facilities in its network and a ticket to the unicorn club. However, layoffs are rarely — if ever — a good sign for a business.
A Stord spokesperson defended the firm’s decision to Insider, saying, “While this was a challenging day for everyone, the company remains in an incredibly strong position as brands continue to invest in the technology and logistics solutions they need to meet customer expectations and fuel growth.
“Stord has achieved record revenue growth, is on pace for greater growth in Q2 and has an extremely strong balance sheet with the additional capital raised in May,” the spokesperson said.
Why supply chains are still a puzzle
Employees reportedly were informed that they were laid off due to organizational restructuring rather than their performance and were then asked to leave the office premises. The affected workers came from a wide range of departments including product and engineering, professional services, talent acquisition, quality analysts, sales and product development.
All told, about 250 employees were cut from FarEye’s workforce of over 750.
“This strategic realignment has resulted in the need to restructure a part of our team,” CEO Kushal Nahata explained in a statement. “For a company like FarEye that has always kept its people at the core and believes that our people are our strongest asset, it has been a difficult period. We had to make some hard decisions to reduce our team across operations and services.”
Nahata cited softening market conditions as one of the catalysts for the headcount reduction. He added that in the short term, the company would be focused on strengthening core competencies, differentiating its product, investing in automation and “optimizing the effort” needed to run the business.
“In the year ahead, we are focusing our efforts and aligning resources in areas that drive maximum value for our customers while addressing their key challenges around operational efficiencies, cost optimization and delivery experience,” Nahata said.
Things appeared to be going swimmingly for FarEye until now. In April 2021, the firm was named to the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Real-Time Transportation Visibility Platforms. Gartner listed FarEye as a “challenger” in the space alongside other familiar names like C.H. Robinson, Descartes and Shippeo.
