Lev's To Cut 700 Jobs

(RTTNews) - Jeans maker Levi Strauss & Co. (LEVI), Tuesday said it decided to prune around 700 or 15% of its workforce in its non-retail, non-manufacturing segments as the company expects its business to continue to be affected by the coronavirus pandemic for the rest of the year.

The job cut helps the company to save $100 million a year, it said.

In the second quarter ended May 24, 2020, Levi's revenue decreased 62% at $498 million, massively hit by temporary store closures due to coronavirus pandemic. The company reported loss $364 million in the quarter compared with profit of $29 million in the year-ago period.

Levis said the losses were partially offset by 25% growth in online sales "with sequential month-over-month acceleration to nearly 80 percent growth for the month of May."

"As a result of our actions, in the second quarter, we increased total liquidity to $2 billion, reduced Adjusted SG&A by $157 million and managed inventories to only a ten-percent increase over the prior year. We are encouraged by early signs of recovery, as roughly 90 percent of our company-operated and franchisee doors have now reopened globally," said Harmit Singh, executive vice president, and chief financial officer of Levi Strauss & Co.

Tuesday, LEVI was down 0.58 or 4.02% before closing at $13.83. The stock lost more than 25% of its value in the past six months.