Post-pandemic hangover: Auckland-based e-tail specialist Cin7 culls staff

Auckland-based e-commerce firm Cin7 is culling staff, with a consultation process due to wrap up this week. Photo / Getty Images

The string of local tech layoffs continues.

Auckland-based e-commerce firm Cin7 is culling staff, with a consultation process due to wrap up this week.

The firm and owners did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but according to staff and documents sighted by the Herald, the company is laying off around 15 per cent of its staff. Insiders put total staff at just under 300 - with around two-thirds in New Zealand and most of the balance in the US.

Cin7, founded in 2011 by Vietnamese refugee turned entrepreneur Danny Ing, assists firms that want to sell through Amazon.com and other e-commerce platforms. Most of its customers are overseas.

The firm was bought by US private equity outfit Rubicon Technology Partners in 2019 in a deal that an Overseas Investment Office filing put at $133.3 million (ahead of the deal, Ing owned 40.3 per cent of Cin7 through a direct stake, and a further 10 per cent through a trust.).

Then Cin7 chief commercial officer David Leach with the company's founder and chief architect Danny Ing in 2019. Leach is chief executive today.

At the time of the Rubicon deal, Cin7 had around 150 staff. It bulked up by buying two smaller companies in 2021 and “went on a hiring spree” as the e-tail sector boomed as a whole during the lockdown-heavy first two years of Covid. “Sales went through the roof,” an insider said.

Now, it seems Cin7 is facing a post-pandemic hangover as the centre of gravity shifts back to bricks and mortar stores, and economies slow.

“During the pandemic, we quickly grew our business as customers accelerated their digital spend and benefited from e-commerce tailwinds. We hired a lot of great people during this time to match that growth and invested for future growth and acceleration,” a Cin7 presentation to staff said.

“Today, we see SMB [small-to-medium business] and mid-market product sellers continue to grow steadily, but the rate of growth has normalised to pre-pandemic levels. We are observing broader macro turbulence and changing market conditions.”

The Herald understands that Rubicon executives, plus Cin7′s US-based CFO Nolan Smith, were in Auckland shortly before a round of consultations kicked off last week, although the redundancy round was not kicked off until after their departure. The process is due to wrap up this week. Affected staff have been offered up to six sessions with an independent counsellor.

Cin7′s layoffs follow a spate of redundancies in the tech sector worldwide. Recent restructures closer to home have seen Xero cut 800 staff (also equating to around 15 per cent of its global total), MYOB make around 80 staff redundant, Sky TV lose 170 NZ roles through offshoring (reducing its local staff to 700), and NZX-listed TradeWindow consult on 35 roles or around one-third of its staff.