Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop cuts staff and tries to change strategy

Goop is cutting 18% of its 216 employees, citing a change in its organization, WWD reported Thursday. The company will focus on beauty, fashion and food – specifically the Goop Beauty and Good Clean Goop beauty brands, the G. Label clothing line and the Goop Kitchen restaurants.

This means the brand is moving away from the wellness, home, travel and sexual well-being that once defined the brand.

Goop started as a newsletter featuring Paltrow's favorite things before becoming a website and eventually a mini-empire.

Ten years after its 2018 launch, it raised $50 million in a Series C round; it has raised $134.5 million in total and was last valued at $433 million in 2020, according to PitchBook. Back then, it was primarily a media and e-commerce company, touting alternative health products like jade vaginal eggs and its own line of nutritional supplements, signing deals with media giants like Condé Nast and hosting summits that could cost thousands of dollars to attend.

Over the course of its many iterations, it has also spawned a Netflix series, a line of home goods, and its own publishing company.

Recently, attention has focused on the areas of beauty and food.

Over the summer, Goop opened its first store offering in-store treatments. Last year, the company launched Good Clean Goop, a more affordable skincare line available at Target and Amazon. (A scrub from the brand costs $20, while one from Goop Beauty costs $125.)

Puck reported in June that the cheaper line was in the “bottom 15” at Target. Neil Saunders, managing director at GlobalDatal Retail, told Business Insider that while the Target presence has increased brand awareness, “Goop still has more work to do to really break through, especially with younger consumers.”

Goop Kitchen – a ghost kitchen or delivery-only restaurant – was founded in 2021. It has several locations in Southern California and recently raised $15 million from investors including Travis Kalanick, Uber co-founder and CEO of CloudKitchens, valuing it at $105 million, according to PitchBook.

Goop's numerous restructurings have not been without internal turmoil. In 2021, BI reported that at least 140 employees, including executives, had left the company within two years, with some saying they felt underpaid.

“Leadership training is what I spend all my time on,” a former employee told BI at the time. “Sometimes when you have founders who are also CEOs, that passion can be a blind spot.”

While the brand has had three CEOs since its inception, Paltrow has been its chief executive since 2017.

The brand told WWD that its sales increased last year over 2022 and are on track to increase again this year, but did not provide numbers.

Goop did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

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