Beauty retailer Sephora (LVMH) will lay off 117 full-time employees in the US, or 7% of its current full-time corporate workforce in the country, as part of a restructuring effort.
The reductions include a number of Sephora in JCPenney corporate roles and reflect the department-store group’s store closures.As reported, last week JCPenney said it would close 152 stores and lay off 1,000 employees at its corporate, field management and international departments. JCPenney filed for bankruptcy in May.
Sephora has also created 132 net new full-time roles, while reducing its reliance on contractors and eliminating roles that are no longer in line with what the retailer calls its changed priorities. Sephora says the new roles will also enable the recruitment of more diverse employees. Laid off employees will be able to interview for the newly created positions.
Sephora says that the move comes as, like many other retailers, it has been facing “an unprecedented challenge” over the past few months.
The company has been reviewing its corporate structure for over a year. The COVID-19 pandemic required that the company accelerated its review, it says.
Sephora says it will put a focus on what it calls the new retail environment as well as new centers of excellence both in-store and online.