Global Brands Still Recovering in 2024

Industry: Automotive
Status: 4,000 Job Cuts

Best known for its “Beetle”, Volkswagen has been producing top-quality automobiles for more than 80 years. In 2016, the Volkswagen Group began its 2-year reign as the world’s largest (by sales) car maker. It seemed as though nothing would be able to stop VW from continuing on this path for years to come.

©Julian Hochgesang/Unsplash

Due to the EU’s crackdown on emissions, in order to remain relevant, many automotive companies began to direct their attention towards electric cars, and Volkswagen was no different. To help finance the more expensive technologies that will be utilized, there are talks of cutting 4,000 jobs. Don’t worry, the older employees won’t be left out in the cold, they will be offered early or partial retirement. Sadly, the same can’t be said about the younger ones.

Industry: Brewery
Status: Cutting 8,000 Employees

In 2019, Heineken made a net profit of more than $2 billion in worldwide sales, so it’s understandable that after reporting a net loss of almost $250 million in 2020, the top brass at Heineken decided that changes needed to be made, and quick. 

Heineken Lager Beer / Shutterstock.com

With so much being unknown about when the current economic situation will improve, Heineken has decided to cut 8,000 employees and make some changes to their business plan. This means cutting back on beer production and finding a way to “move beyond beer” into non-alcoholic beverages that can be enjoyed by a larger market.

Industry: Theme Parks
Status: Laid Off 32,000 Employees

There was a time when people would have traveled far and wide to visit one of the Walt Disney Company’s theme parks. The grounds of the parks used to be a sea of men, women, and children of all ages, but the events of the past year have all but turned “the happiest place on Earth” into a ghost town. 

Disney @WDCmed/Pinterest

After the furloughing of approximately 100,000 employees in April of 2020 (in the United States alone), and with no immediate end in sight for the issue of the low admissions that are plaguing the parks, The Walt Disney Company has had to make some tough decisions. These decisions will inevitably cost some people their jobs as, in November of 2020, the plans to lay off around 32,000 of its America-based workers were made public. 

Industry: Restaurant
Status: Furloughed 15,000 Employees

Dave & Buster’s has been a “go-to” birthday venue in North America for almost 40 years. Unlike most restaurants, D&B doesn’t mainly rely on food and drinks to push sales, it has a wide variety of arcade games to do that. It’s a place for adults to act like children for a few hours and enjoy the video games of their childhoods, and the bar is a nice touch as well.

Dave & Buster's @daveandbusters / Facebook.com

All of Dave & Buster’s 140 locations were temporarily closed in the Spring of 2020, which left the company no choice but to furlough 15,000 employees. The hesitation that customers may have in partaking in the games and activities that have been touched by many other people is the largest obstacle in the way of Dave & Buster’s revival.

Industry: Oil and Gas
Status: Layoffs of 10-15% of employees

In one way or another, the Chevron name has been part of the oil and gas industry for more than a century. Chevron, which began as the Standard Oil Co. (California) in 1906, has stood the true test of time. It endured 2 world wars and multiple oil shortages over the years and managed to grow into a multi-billion dollar company with almost 50,000 employees by 2018.

Chevron @Chevron / Facebook.com

Chevron began cutting back on its workforce as early as 2015 when 7,000 employees lost their jobs. The following year, Chevron pulled its operations out of South Africa, costing hundreds of more people their livelihood. The rising prices that were the result of the oil war between Saudi Arabia and Russia in 2020, as well as the steep drop off in petrol purchases during the year, played a big part in Chevron’s decision to layoff 10-15% of its workforce, totaling an additional 7000+ employees.

Industry: Aerospace
Status: Laying off ~30,000 Employees

In 2020, air travel was at one of the lowest levels it had been at in decades. As air travel declined, as did the airlines’ need for new Boeing aircrafts. In the spring of 2020, 12,000 Boeing employees were cut, and after reporting a $2.4 billion loss in Q1, another series of job cuts, totaling an additional 16,000 workers, was announced. 

Boeing @Boeing / Facebook.com

Following another negative quarter in Q2 of 2020, almost 30,000 workers were informed via e-mail about the cuts. With so much still unknown, in regards to when air travel will return to normal, the CEO of Boeing, David Calhoun, continues to pull out all the strings in hopes of keeping the company afloat.

Industry: Cosmetics
Status: Significant Layoffs

There are not many American companies left whose creation precedes World War 2, and in 2020 yet another almost met its demise. Cosmetics have been around, in one form or another, for hundreds of years, which is why it’s so hard to believe that one of the most well-established companies barely avoided filing for Chapter 11 in 2020. Things started to take a turn for Revlon in 2011 when it was discovered that the company was paying Chinese laboratories to test their cosmetics on animals such as rabbits.

©TY Lim / Shutterstock.com

A series of poor decisions and a revolving door of those in charge were amongst the many factors that played into Revlon’s declining sales over the next decade, and by March of 2020, Revlon was on the brink of bankruptcy. After a round of job cuts and a $65 million credit facility that will improve liquidity, Revlon was able to survive another day and will live to see its 90th birthday on March 1st, 2022.

Industry: Live Events Ticketing
Status: Furloughed 300 Employees

Founded in 2000, as a way for people to re-sell and exchange event tickets that they’ve purchased, StubHub has become one of the most well-known names in the live event ticketing world. In 2007, eBay purchased StubHub for $310 million and, in StubHub fashion, re-sold it to one of the founders of StubHub, Eric Baker (now CEO and founder of Viagogo) for $4.05 billion in early 2020.

StubHub @Stubhub / Facebook.com

There was no way to predict that, the more than, 20,000 live events that had been scheduled for 2020 were going to be canceled. Most of the employees (approximately 300) who were working for StubHub in the Spring of 2020 were furloughed, and in being a third-party company, StubHub is trying to ensure that they receive their refunds before they must refund their customers. Due to the refund policy that preceded these cancellations, however, it’s not looking good.

Industry: Health And Fitness Products
Status: Chapter 11

In recent years, there has been an ever-increasing focus on healthy eating, and as such, there have been many rival companies that have popped up. As a result of the competition, GNC’s sales began to decrease a few years ago and, in 2019, they announced that the following year the company would be closing around 900 locations that were found in malls. 

GNC Holdings ©rblfmr / Shutterstock.com

Most of GNC’s business comes from in-person shopping, so when most people switched to the world of online shopping in 2020, stores like GNC felt the loss more than others that were better equipped to switch to internet sales. The company filed for Chapter 11 in June of 2020 and announced the closure of at least another 800 stores. GNC has since been delisted from the NYSE and the sale of the company has been approved to Harbin Pharmaceutical Group for $770 million.

Industry: Car Rental
Status: Chapter 11

The economic situation of 2020 hit the tourism industry harder than almost every other sector. As a result of the temporary closure of all locations and the lack of any customers, Hertz was unable to meet the deadlines that were set out to pay for the fleet of cars which it leases and announced that they would be cutting some 10,000 employees by April of 2020.

Hertz ©EQRoy / Shutterstock.com

Hertz tried to pull one last rabbit out of its hat but was unable to come to an agreement with some of its top lenders in order to secure the appropriate financing, and with almost $17 billion in debt, HTZGQ filed for Chapter 11 on May 22nd, 2020, and was delisted from the NYSE 5 months later, but continues to trade on the OTC Pink.

Industry: Mass Media / Entertainment
Status: Laid Off ~1,800 Employees

More than 150 employees from HBO and another 600 or so from Warner were laid off in the summer of 2019 as part of a restructuring plan that began earlier that year when WarnerMedia divided what remained of Turner Broadcasting into WarnerMedia Entertainment and WarnerMedia New & Sports, its two newest divisions.

WarnerMedia @_DCCBRASIL / Twitter.com

The economic crisis that hit in the Spring of 2020 caused the film and television industry to be brought, almost completely, to a standstill. As a result, WarnerMedia suffered a massive loss of profit and in October of that year announced plans to cut another 1,000 jobs and put a plan in place to help reduce costs by a minimum of 20%.

Industry: Retail
Status: Furloughed 90% of employees

In 1986, Steve Mandell opened the first Party City in New Jersey with the vision of being “the” place to go for any, and all party supply needs that one could desire. 34 years later there were over 900 locations and 10,000 employees across North America of Party City and its sibling stores, Halloween City, Factory Card, Party Outlet, and Toy City. 

Party City ©Roman Tiraspolsky/ Shutterstock.com

The problem with having a chain of party stores is that when there are no parties, there’s no business, and there were not many parties had in 2020. Due to the lack of demand in the party supply world over the past year, Party City was forced to furlough almost 90% of its employees and its share price dropped more than 80%. Some locations began offering roadside pick-up, but the majority of the party outlet stores have remained completely closed.

Industry: Retail
Status: Most Staff Furloughed & 16 Store Closures

Nordstrom has been a top-tier name in the retail industry since the turn of the 20th century when the first store opened. With nearly 500 locations across The United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico by the 2000s, Nordstrom’s continued expansion seemed inevitable.

@Shoptil/Twitter

By the mid-2010s Nordstrom had already begun the transition to online sales and although digital sales did account for 33% of their total sales in 2019, nothing could have prepared the retail industry for the worldwide economic crisis of 2020. Almost all of their employees were furloughed when Nordstrom was forced to temporarily close all locations in March of 2020. To date, there have been 16 locations that weren’t able to survive the retail store massacre of the past year, and have been permanently closed.

Industry: Restaurant
Status: Emerged from Chapter 11

In the early 2000s, Ruby Tuesday was operating almost 950 locations across America, but due to declining sales that began in the latter part of that decade, sadly, the 1000 location milestone would not be achieved. The company started closing locations and attempted, to no avail, to remodel the franchise. In 2016, Ruby Tuesday announced the closure of 95 of its stores, marking the largest single-month store closure up to that point.

Ruby Tuesday @rubytuesday / Facebook.com

The economic crisis that ravaged the restaurant industry in 2020 was especially unkind to Ruby Tuesday. In October of 2020 Ruby Tuesday filed for Chapter 11 but after significant closures, in February of 2021, they emerged from beneath the rubble of their own bankruptcy. Only 209 out of 945 locations remain, but at least it’s something.