Zilch Latest BNPL Firm to Lay Off Staff

U.K.-based BNPL firm Zilch is reportedly laying off staff as it looks to cut costs.

The Zilch layoffs, first reported in the Evening Standard on Saturday (Nov. 26), are said to amount to over 10% of its workforce.

Some buy now pay later firm layoffs have been subtle and low-key, like Affirm’s decision to lose about 1% of its global workforce, which managed to fly under the radar of most media outlets, leaving social media posts by former employees just about the only evidence the layoffs even happened.

Others have been more high profile. For example, Klarna’s decision to cut roughly 700 jobs in May, followed by a further round of layoffs just four months later.

Regardless of the public relations impact of respective BNPL restructurings, the story is one of near industry-wide weight loss with thousands of employees affected globally.

While the BNPL sector as a whole is undergoing a period of austerity after several years of unbridled growth, there will come a time when whichever firms survive the current economic downturn and credit supply shortage need to start hiring again.

As such, even though management teams may deem downsizing necessary, they would be wise to exercise sensitivity in doing so.

For Zilch, one scathing employee review on Glassdoor has already been cited by the Evening Standard and nearly every outlet that has covered the story so far.

The disgruntled employee said that the company has already let go of over 30 employees and more people are resigning because of “bad morale.”

Scrolling back to previous reviews, it’s apparent that criticism of Zilch’s management predates the latest staff reduction. In September, one wrote that the company “needs a lot of managerial improvement,” while another said that Zilch suffered from “bad managers all around.” As far back as July, another Glassdoor user posted that the firm had “toxic senior leadership.”

For all PYMNTS EMEA coverage, subscribe to the daily EMEA Newsletter.