According to reports, Gwyneth Paltrow's company Goop will cut around 20% of its workforce as it looks to move away from its image as a health and lifestyle brand and focus on selling its beauty products.
The company — which gained notoriety from products like a candle called “This Smells Like My Vagina” and a psychic vampire repellent spray — has struggled to maintain its relevance since the actress launched Goop as a news magazine in 2008.
Goop plans to cut 18% of its 216-person staff in a massive restructuring effort to mitigate “numerous layoffs.” The fashion trade journal WWD reported Thursday.
According to Business Insider, the company will shift its focus from loss-making topics such as health, particularly sexual health, and travel, to three key growth areas: beauty, fashion, and food.
“Goop has been trying to be known as a wellness company for a while, selling all kinds of products and advice that might seem weird or non-mainstream to some people. It was a fad. Fashions don't last long,” HeraldPR CEO Judah Engelmayer told the Post.
“I think she's still a big star. I don't think it's fading away. I think it's an industry thing.”
The Post has contacted Goop for comment.
Paltrow, the “Avengers” star and company CEO, has always targeted luxury customers with her high-end Goop skincare brand, which sells products such as face moisturizer for $100 a jar.
It has also begun to make room for more price-conscious shoppers. The company launched its good.clean.goop brand last year on Amazon and Target, with items priced under $40.
Goop's revenue from beauty products grew 40% last year. According to WWDThe outlet said overall revenue increased in 2023 and is expected to grow again this year.
“It's been a steep learning curve. It's a totally different business, but it's been really fun,” Paltrow told WWD in July about good.clean.goop.
Goop recently opened its sixth retail store in the Bay Area to further expand its beauty brands. It also has two shops in the Los Angeles area, and one each in New York City, Sag Harbor, NY, and Hawaii.
The company has also expanded its Los Angeles-based food brand Goop Kitchen, which delivers healthy meals to customers' doors.
The food delivery service raised $15 million in capital from Uber co-founder and CloudKitchens CEO Travis Kalanick, among others, valuing the brand at $90 million.
CloudKitchens founder Diego Burdekin also invested in the Goop brand.
“Goop Kitchen launched last year in a Costa Mesa cloudkitchen and paid off in less than three months,” Burdekin told WWD. “Simply put, it’s the most impressive operator I’ve seen in the last decade investing in online delivery.”
Paltrow's brand ran into trouble when she advised readers to insert $66 worth of jade and rose quartz stones into their vaginas to balance their hormones and increase their “feminine energy.”
Gynecologists disputed the beneficial claims associated with eggs, and instead revealed that they may cause toxic shock syndrome.
Goop settled lawsuit for $145,000 in 2018 for “unproven” marketing claims.
