Gopuff laid off about 250 customer service employees amid ongoing restructuring

Another few hundred Gopuff employees were shed this month amid the Philly company’s continued “restructuring.”

The instant needs delivery company has made several rounds of layoffs this year: first, hundreds of employees equating to about 3% of the company in March, then about 1,500, or another 10% of the company, in July.

Last week, about 250 customer service team members were let go from the company, a Gopuff spokesperson confirmed to Technical.ly following a Bloomberg report. Those layoffs included both full-time and temporary employees, and were part of the planned 10% reduction from this summer, the company said in an emailed statement.

“In July, Gopuff announced a company-wide reorganization and 10% reduction in workforce as part of a broader restructuring effort to focus on profitability,” Gopuff said the statement. “The most recent impacts to the customer service team were part of this reorganization which we’ve been implementing for the last three months.”

The spokesperson told Technical.ly that the customer experience team needed to stay on longer than those let go in July “for legal and operational reasons,” and that the company had begun using an outsourced customer experience network back in February.

A memo from Gopuff cofounders and co-CEOs Rafael Ilishayev and Yakir Gola to investors in July stated that they would be “informing impacted employees throughout the day today.” But the spokesperson said that the roughly 250 employees affected in this round were informed last week.

Those who were let go were given severance and support with the transition, per the spokesperson.

The July memo noted that the instant needs industry is at an “inflection point.” Gopuff’s layoffs have been part of a strategy toward “improving operational efficiencies,” the cofounders said in the memo, as it prepares for a period of economic downturn and focuses on profitability.

This latest staff shakeup comes a few weeks after Gopuff announced its new Goodnow brand focused on private-label health and wellness products. This fall, the Philly company also celebrated the opening of a new fulfillment center in Callowhill, as well as its 10 millionth local delivery. Although Gopuff was previously rumored to be prepping for an IPO this year, the market changed those plans, Ilishayev said in September.

Gopuff is among a handful of large tech companies who have gone through rounds of layoffs this year. This month, Microsoft laid off about 1,000 employees, and Meta instituted a hiring freeze. Snap Inc., maker of Snapchat, also announced 20% reduction in workforce this year, accounting for about 1,200 employees.