Ritual, Toronto Based food ordering, and mobile pickup service has laid off 16% of its current workforce ~ 23 employees. This is their 2nd round of layoffs since the pandemic.
Here is a statement from the CEO – Ray Reddy
Important company changes
Dear team,
Over the past few months, | have had the privilege to share with you some of my most
meaningful business reflections as we look back and collectively build forward. Today, at our all-hands meeting, | shared with you some difficult news. For those who were unable to attend our all-hands meeting, | announced that we’ve made the difficult decision to restructure the company requiring a reduction in the size of Ritual’s workforce. Of the 148 people who work for Ritual, 23 will be leaving the company today representing 15.5% of our workforce.
During our call today, | shared details about how we came to this decision, who is affected and our plan to take care of those who are departing. Our focus today is on taking care of each other so | wanted to share with you as much as possible about our decision and where we go next.
Why are these changes happening?
The word ‘unpredictable’ summarizes the challenges our business has faced over the last two years. With no playbooks on how to navigate a global pandemic, we saw major shifts in our business, first losing a significant portion of revenue from office closures, then seeing our residential business grow as we went in and out of lockdowns. Over the last few months, we’ve seen downtown cores rebound but a new challenge is emergingas we prepare for a recession.
While the weight of recession can be heavy, we are now entering a more predictable time. We have been through many recessions and because of that, we understand that consumer discretionary spending will go down and restaurants will be looking to cut costs to keep prices competitive. To succeed in this environment, we need to continue to offer value to our customers by focusing on the fewer, more impactful products and
keeping our prices low and we can only do that by keeping our operating costs low too.
Accordingly, we made the decision to concentrate our resources on fewer products and services we believe will really matter to our users, restaurant partners and workplaces. Our mission to help restaurants thrive by delivering great digital experiences, cost-effectively, to customers is as important as ever.
What does it mean for those whose roles are affected?
For those whose roles are affected, we know that the news from today is challenging and brings with it so much uncertainty. While there is little we can do to change that, our focus has been on providing a transition plan that puts them in the best position for their tomorrow. We will be connecting with everyone individually in more detail but our plan includes:
Severance 3month extension of full health and dental benefits for all departing employees and their dependents until September.Severance packages based on employee tenure.
Hardware assistance programs to allow employees to keep company equipment that they may need. Reference letters, 1:1 interview coaching and resume reviews.
- Commitments from our investors that have open roles within their portfolio
companies to provide introductions and interview opportunities for anyone
interested in positions at these companies.
| want to stress that the roles that were eliminated were a function of us focusing our investments and not a reflection of the performance of those individuals or teams. Ritual employees are some of the most sought-after tech talent in Toronto and we plan on using our talent team, company resources and our investor networks to support each of the 23 people to find their next opportunity.
What happens now?
By now, it has been communicated to affected employees that their role was impacted by this decision. For those departing, we will be connecting privately to discuss the details of their package and the support they will receive. Although departing employees will no longer have access to sensitive corporate information, we have left Slack & Zoom access open until 3 pm today. | encourage all of you to take time to celebrate and personally support this group that has contributed so much to Ritual.
Today is a tough day for all of us with a lot to process so let’s focus on supporting those who are departing. Tomorrow during our company AMA, we will walk through more details on our re-org and go-forward plan where we can answer any and all questions you may have.
Sincerely,
Ray
