Fabric and crafts retailer Joann Inc. of Hudson on Wednesday, Sept. 13, laid off some members of its corporate staff as part of an effort to bolster the company's financial position.
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A Joann spokeswoman, Amanda Hayes, confirmed layoffs in an email, but in that email did not provide the number of employees affected. She did not reply to a follow-up email seeking details.
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Hayes wrote in the email that Joann "has been exploring every opportunity to improve profitability, drive top line growth and operate the business more efficiently. As such, over the past few months we have restructured both our field and corporate operations to more closely align our expense and corporate structure to the needs of the business. On September 13, we announced changes to our corporate structure that resulted in some position eliminations from various departments."
She continued, "While any decisions involving Team Members are extremely difficult and sensitive, we must do what is best for the business. We sincerely thank all impacted Team Members for their work, and these changes complete our structural plans. We are confident this new way of working and corporate structure will help Joann move forward through the holiday season and beyond with efficiency, agility and a keen focus on our customers."
One employee who spoke with Crain's and asked to remain anonymous said in an email that there were department meetings throughout Wednesday related to the restructuring and that there was a virtual companywide meeting at the end of the day.
"From what I know, the layoffs included a lot of VPs, managers and also many 'lay' employees," the Joann employee said.
Some employees also posted about the layoffs on a site called TheLayoff.com. Both the employee Crain's spoke to and one of the posters on TheLayoff.com said the cuts could be as much as 20% of corporate staff.
On Aug. 25, Bloomberg reported that some first-lien lenders were in contact with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher while the fabric and crafts retailer was seeking to build up its cash reserves. As of April 29, regulatory filings showed that Joann had around $19.7 million in cash and $61.3 million of availability under its revolver. The Bloomberg story, citing a corporate spokesperson, noted that Joann "is exploring a sale-leaseback of its corporate headquarters." The company has undertaken sale-leaseback deals in the past and is always looking for strategic opportunities, the spokesperson told Bloomberg last month.