Nike to lay off 700 employees at Oregon HQ

By

Robin Driver

Published
Nov 4, 2020

American sportswear giant Nike revealed on Tuesday that it will cut 700 jobs at its Beaverton, Oregon HQ by January 2021, as part of wider restructuring efforts at the company.
 

Announced in a filing made with the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission’s Office of Workforce Investments, the planned cutbacks are a revision of a previous report from the company, which had estimated that layoffs at its corporate HQ would total around 500.
 
According to Nike, 200 of the eliminated jobs are directly related to the permanent closure of the company childcare center.

It has become common over the last few months to see companies taking action to dramatically cut costs in an attempt to deal with the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Nike, however, has managed to maintain strong sales throughout the health crisis.
 
The layoffs announced by the company on Monday are, instead, part of a restructuring strategy seeking to refocus the business’ operations around online direct-to-consumer sales. Efforts to implement this plan have been accelerated since June in light of the boost in e-commerce sales that has accompanied the spread of Covid-19.
 
In July the company reported that, as part of the strategy led by CEO John Donahoe, it will be spending up to $250 million cutting jobs around the world. As of the end of May, Nike employed some 75,400 people, representing a decrease of 1,600 compared to the previous year.
 
For the first quarter ended August 31, 2020, Nike reported $10.6 billion in revenues, approximately flat compared to the prior-year period. Quarterly earnings at the company were $1.5 billion, up from $1.4 billion in the same period in the previous year.