Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)-owned grocery business Whole Foods Market plans to reorganize its operating structure and make certain changes to its global and regional support teams over the next two months. According to an internal memo, the company is transitioning from a structure of nine regions to six regions to ensure faster decisions, scale innovations, and enhance customer service.
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Whole Foods expects its reorganization to result in some job cuts in certain global and regional support teams. As per the Wall Street Journal, the layoffs will impact less than 0.5% of Whole Foods’ total workforce of 105,000 employees. The company assured that the move will not involve any store or facility closures or impact any jobs at stores and facilities. Meanwhile, Whole Foods, which operates over 500 stores, continues to expand its footprint and has over 50 new stores in development.
Amazon acquired Whole Foods in 2017 for $13.7 billion to accelerate its presence in the grocery space. Whole Foods has streamlined its operations in recent years. It merged its global and merchandising teams into a single team in 2021.
Whole Foods and other supermarkets have been under pressure due to macro challenges and high inflation. Several companies are streamlining their businesses and cutting costs to navigate a tough macro environment. Whole Foods’ parent company Amazon is also aggressively cutting costs. Last month, it announced 9,000 layoffs on top of the 18,000 job cuts announced previously.
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