New Delhi: The home shopping channel of Network18, Homeshop18 has laid off close to 200 of its staffers in an effort to bring down the cost of its operations. These include employees across levels.
In an email response, a Homeshop18 spokesperson said, “Homeshop18 is continually looking at its business approach and periodically restructuring to move towards the path of profitability with continued focus on TV shopping space. To be able to achieve its goal, Homeshop18 has focused the business in selected areas and reorganized the company to make it leaner and more focussed. This will position the business for longer term success and profitability.”
Senior executives at the firm said they were working towards a more sustainable and profitable business. “We have restructured to attain our goals and all this will add up to significantly enhanced value for our customers, vendors, partners, and employees,”.
Homeshop18 posted losses of R84.2 crore for the period ended March 2016, compared with Rs 174.9 crore in FY15. The company saw a 13% drop in revenues to R390.4 in FY16 against R449 crore in FY15.
The process of laying off employees is understood to have started about two weeks ago. “The company employs 600 people in all, and is looking at reducing the staff strength by about 40%,” a person close to the development said.
Network18 Media and Investments in its results for the quarter ended December 31, 2016, said the TV home-shopping business had been hurt by multiple factors such as the increasing competitive intensity e-commerce, poor consumption spends during November-December with cash-on-delivery significantly impacted and also regulatory challenges such as the imposition of entry tax by several states. The company explained the business is making substantial losses and is passing through a critical phase.
Homeshop18 recorded over 22 lakh transactions for the quarter ended September 30, 2016. It reported a cumulative customer base of 19.9 million in the quarter compared to 15.8 million Q2FY16 and 18.9 million in Q1FY17.
