Bath & Body Works Cuts 130 Jobs Amid Slight Sales Drop

Bath & Body Works will cut 130 jobs — mostly leadership roles — in what the personal care and fragrance brand called an effort to promote long-term growth and efficiency.

The company announced that news Wednesday (Aug. 17) along with its second-quarter earnings results, which showed net sales of $1.6 billion, down 5% year over year but a 45% increase from the second quarter of 2019.

“Our results in the second quarter were better than our most recent expectations, reflecting improvement in sales toward the end of the quarter as customers responded to newness in our assortment as well as favorability in expenses,” said Bath & Body Works Chair and Interim CEO Sarah Nash in a press release. “The business continues to perform at levels significantly above pre-pandemic, and our team is effectively navigating the challenging environment and inflationary pressure affecting our customers and our business.”

PYMNTS reported on the “newness” Nash mentioned following Bath & Body Works’ earnings report in May. The company had begun releasing new products and fragrances on a four- to six-week basis and was also exploring expanding into new categories and new geographies around the world.

Read more: Bath & Body Works Highlights Innovation, Expansion

The company also announced plans to change how it makes its products and packaging, including eliminating carbons, sulfates and dyes, with 35% of its assortment to be reformatted by the year’s end.

Nash said in the Wednesday release that the company is also launching a loyalty program — part of what she called an emphasis on “customer-facing investments” — in the second half of the year.

Nash became Bath & Body Works’ interim CEO in May, following the departure of Andrew Meslow, who stepped down for health reasons. The company has said it would hire a national search firm to help to find a permanent chief executive.

See more: Bath & Body Aims to Keep Record Results Momentum as CEO Steps Down

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