Blue Apron Puts Things On Pause

On the heels of its recent IPO, meal kit food delivery service Blue Apron is implementing a hiring freeze in select departments and has issued layoff notices to 14 of its recruiters, according to news from TechCrunch. The company is also shuttering its existing New Jersey plant and shifting more than 1,200 positions to a bigger location in the state before year’s end, which is expected to impact nearly a quarter of the company’s overall workforce.

Blue Apron is expecting the bigger facility, which will be located in Linden, New Jersey, to provide the food delivery company with more advanced automation technologies so the company can offer new products to its meal kit customers. The firm has also said it will cut the ribbon on an additional facility in Fairfield, California, next year.

Despite the hiring freeze and layoffs, the company is still seeking new staff members for some hourly positions in fulfillment facilities and is also hiring for certain corporate roles, including a plan to hire a chief human resources officer. This newly created position would fill the empty slot after the recent departure of previous Vice President of Human Resources and Talent, Kate Muzzatti, who left the firm earlier this month, according to Bloomberg.

“As part of our long-term strategy, we recently completed an internal reorganization, which involved several changes to our organizational structure, including the creation of our new consumer products team and the launch of a new fulfillment center team in Linden, which will replace our prior center in Jersey City,” said Blue Apron CEO Matt Salzberg in a statement to TechCrunch.

Blue Apron is also in the spotlight due to a recent lawsuit suggesting that the firm misled investors during its IPO process by making “misleading” and “untrue statements” in its original Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Matt Salzberg and his company have said it will fight the allegations, which were leveled by shareholder Ahmed Chaudhry.