7,000 to 9,000 people might be asked to leave their jobs or go on voluntary retirement following the decision of HP’s new CEO, Enrique Lores to restructure the company and revive printer sales.
The company announced this in a meeting that was anchored by Enrique Lores, who disclosed that he was planning to lay off 16% of its 55,000 global workforce over the next three years.
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The difficulties: HP has been encountering a decline in the printing-supplies business that used to be a big source of its revenue. To combat the decline, The company planned to offer new ways in selling its products.
Old sales model: HP’s initial model was selling printers at a discount with the view to making money on ink cartridges. The goal was to penetrate more consumer homes and more offices, according to Lores, who is slated to take over as CEO on November 1.
However, users’ habits changed, and customers began to buy their ink cartridges from other cheaper vendors and become more judicious in the documents they choose to print, hurting HP’s business.
New sales plan: Lores’ Plan as new CEO is to change the sales model and offer customers the option of buying their discounted printers but coerce them into buying ink from HP.
“It is not unlike smartphones that are “locked” to a particular service provider. Customers also can opt to purchase printers at a higher price that would allow them to use third-party ink cartridges,” Lores said.
HP expects that the decision to cut 7,000 to 9,000 people from its global workforce will enable it to save about $1 billion a year by the end of its 2022 fiscal year. It also explained that the move would allow them to redirect additional money to areas of growth and shareholder returns through a combination of higher dividend payouts and share repurchases.
The idea to let staff go may, however, seriously affect the company’s bottom line.
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What you should know: HP Inc. was created in 2015 when Hewlett Packard split his PC and printer operations from its businesses specializing in data-centre hardware and business software. That part is now known as Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Before the decline in the printer business, HP was enjoying growth after Hewlett-Packard in 2015 split the company that Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started in their Palo Alto, California, garage in 1939. The other business, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., focuses on include selling computer servers, data-storage gear and other services for corporate-technology departments and was widely seen as the company with more promising growth prospects.
Mr. Lores, who has run the HP printer business since the split in August, was named to succeed CEO Dion Weisler, who said he was leaving the company for family health reasons.
