Hong Kong-based food delivery start-up Plum to cut entire staff in attempt to restructure
- The company, established in November 2017, says it will provide equity ownership to staff who wish to stay on
- It follows announcement on Monday by clothing retailer Esprit Holdings it was cutting 40 per cent of office staff and closing shops globally
Food delivery start-up Plum has laid off its entire staff, becoming the second company to roll out a redundancy plan in 24 hours. It did however offer workers the option to stay on as co-owners.
Desmond Clinton Cheung, co-founder and general manager at the company revealed on Tuesday that full-time contracts for all 110 workers, including his own, had been terminated, and the company’s new structure would provide equity ownership to staff who are interested in continuing to work at the firm.
Cheung said the company had contacted all staff internally starting from Monday to see whether they wanted to join the new structure and he hoped it could finalise the number of staff staying in the next few days.
“In the past, they were salaried staff and they would become shareholders,” he said.
Ultimately, we think that if the company needs to survive and continue providing business as usual, the timing is not something we can control so much
The Hong Kong-listed company recorded a net loss of HK$2.5 billion (US$319.5 million) for the year ended June 2018, compared with a net profit of HK$67 million the previous year amid declining customer traffic and increased competition from e-commerce channels, according to its annual report.