Mr Yum Lays Off 17% of Staff Due to Uncertain Markets

In a statement on LinkedIn, the CEO and co-founder of Mr Yum, Kim Teo, shared the news. “After deeply exploring every option available, we have made the decision to reduce the Mr Yum team by approximately 17 percent to extend our runway while capital markets remain uncertain,” he said.

This affects roughly one in five workers at the company. Yeo explained that during the peak of the pandemic, the business ‘increased [its] headcount too quickly’.

Following an investment of $81 million in its Series A round, the business assumed the success would continue into 2022. However, inflation caused more issues than expected.

“We made an assumption that the strong economic environment would continue deeper into 2022; instead, conditions deteriorated rapidly in May, back when we first communicated the situation with you, and capital markets have remained soft since,” Teo said.

As part of this change, the business will also work to create a ‘more capital-efficient structure’.

Its workers will be granted six weeks of severance and will receive ‘career transition support’ from Mr Yum.

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