Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop will slash nearly 20% of its workforce as it scrambles to pivot away from its image as a wellness and lifestyle brand to focus on peddling its beauty products, according to reports.
The company — which gained notoriety with products like a candle called “This Smells Like My Vagina” and psychic vampire repellent spray — has struggled to maintain its relevance since the actress launched the Goop as a newsletter in 2008.
Goop plans to cut 18% of its 216-person staff in the massive restructuring effort to reduce “a number of redundancies,” fashion trade journal WWD reported Thursday.
The company will shift from money-losing topics like wellness, especially sexual wellness, and travel to turn its attention to three key areas of growth: beauty, fashion, and food, according to Business Insider.
“Goop has been trying for a while to be known as a wellness company, selling all types of products and advice that some may think is odd or non-mainstream. It was faddy. Fads don’t last,” HeraldPR CEO Juda Engelmayer told The Post.
“I think she’s still a big star. I don’t think that’s fading. I just think it’s the industry.”
The Post reached out to Goop for comment.
Paltrow, the “Avengers” star and company CEO, has always targeted a luxury clientele with its high-end Goop skincare brand that sells products like face moisturizers for $100 a jar.
It has also begun carving out a space with more price-conscious shoppers. The company launched its good.clean.goop brand last year at Amazon and Target with items priced under $40.
Goop’s revenue from its beauty products was up 40% last year, according to WWD. Overall revenue increased in 2023 and is on track to rise again this year, the outlet added.
“It’s been a steep learning curve. It’s a totally different business, but it’s been really fun,” Paltrow told WWD about good.clean.goop in July.
Goop recently opened its sixth retail store, located in the Bay Area, to further lean into its beauty brands. It also has two brick-and-mortar shops in the Los Angeles area, and one each in New York City, Sag Harbor, N.Y. and Hawaii.
The company has also expanded Goop Kitchen, its Los Angeles-based food brand that delivers healthy meals to customers’ doors.
The meal delivery service raised $15 million in capital from Uber co-founder and CloudKitchens CEO Travis Kalanick among others, giving the brand a $90 million valuation.
CloudKitchens founder Diego Berdakin also invested in the Goop brand.
“Goop Kitchen launched in our Costa Mesa CloudKitchen last year and experienced a payback of less than three months,” Berdakin told WWD. “Simply put, this is the most impressive operator I’ve seen in the last decade of investing in online delivery.”
Paltrow’s brand landed in hot water when it recommended readers insert $66 jade and rose quartz stones into their vaginas to balance their hormones and boost their “feminine energy.”
Gynecologists disputed the beneficial claims associated with the eggs, instead revealing they could lead to toxic shock syndrome.
Goop settled a $145,000 lawsuit for the “unsubstantiated” marketing claims in 2018.
