Future Group lays off about 400 employees, scales down Retail 3.0

The Kishore Biyani-led Future Group seems to be following OYO’s path. According to media reports, the company has scaled down its ecommerce venture Retail 3.0 and laid off 350-400 employees in the past few months.

The layoffs were across roles in sales, product development, marketing and ground operations, according to a report on financial daily Mint.

In November 2019, the company shut about 140 EasyDay stores amid little traction to cut costs and laid off several employees, most of whom were working on the EasyDay app, the report said. 

The current round of termination is part of the same restructuring plan as the shutting down of the EasyDay stores, a source told Mint.

Email queries sent by TechCircle did not elicit a response from Future Group at the time of publishing this report.

The layoffs and scaling down of the ecommerce business follow Amazon’s acquisition of 49% stake in Future Group’s promotional entity Future Coupons in August 2019. Amazon also acquired a 3.6% stake in Future Group through the deal. 

In the first week of 2020, Future Retail and Amazon India entered a long-term agreement to sell Future Retail’s consumer brands and products on Amazon India's website. Through this, the companies are planning to expand their offline and online ventures. The partnership will flag off this month with the Future Group’s Republic Day Sabse Saste Din sale being featured on Amazon. 

The Future Group had launched Retail 3.0 in November 2017 at the Nasscom Product Conclave, with an aim to make the group Asia's largest leading integrated consumer company. Biyani had said that that Retail 3.0 would see high levels of personalisation, and predictive and analytical technologies. 

Reports point out that Retail 3.0, which focussed on food, fashion and home, with manufacturing, supply chain, distribution and data capabilities, had started hiring towards the end of 2016 and had over 500-600 employees in 2018.