Ralph Lauren lets people go

New company structure

At the end of the previous quarter, Ralph Lauren had 25,000 employees and 15,000 of those are full-time equivalents. Since mid-May, the company is undergoing a restructuring plan, which will render 750 positions redundant. It is unclear whether more jobs will be cut later on.

Ralph Lauren’s new structure was presented in February and the company now hopes to save up to 100 million dollars (90 million euro). Its goal is to create a core management team for each brand, with 6 brand groups in total.

Christopher Peterson has been appointed Global Brands director in April, while the six separate group directors will have to report to him. Peterson expects this new model to result in higher gross margins.

Ralph Lauren’s quarterly net profit dropped from 153 million dollars (137 million euro) to 124 million dollars (111 million euro). Net profit did grow 1 % however, to 1.89 billion dollars (1.7 billion euro).