Dive Brief:
- Pitney Bowes cut around 2,300 employee positions in Q3, according to the company's quarterly financial report.
- The layoffs, which spurred $30.4 million in severance payments, are part of a wider "cost rationalization" plan Pitney Bowes announced in May. The initiative is focused on reducing corporate expenses and within the company's SendTech and Presort business units.
- Pitney Bowes expects the headcount reduction "to generate significant annualized savings," per its quarterly filing. The company is planning further job cuts, which it aims to "substantially complete" by the end of the first half of 2025.
Dive Insight:
Pitney Bowes has continued to slash its employee ranks — which totaled 10,500 at the end of 2023 — as it positions itself for a financial turnaround.
Beyond the 2,300 positions eliminated in Q3, Pitney Bowes cut 367 jobs in Q2 in the cost rationalization plan's initial rollout. The initiative has brought $90 million in annualized savings since its launch, per an investor presentation.
While the plan has primarily focused on headcount so far, Pitney Bowes is now targeting external expenses in its next phase, CEO Lance Rosenzweig said on a Nov. 7 earnings call. However, these cuts may take a few quarters to be reflected in the company's bottom line, he said.
"Examples would be things like insurance savings and contract renegotiations and outsourcing vendors that our team is confident that it will bring in-house for savings, et cetera," Rosenzweig said. "So these are all expenses that we have identified and that we have a plan to implement."
The cost-savings plan does not involve the company's former Global Ecommerce unit, which is laying off more than 1,200 employees as it winds down under the ownership of Hilco Global.
