The cuts, from 170 employees to 90, were made earlier this month in response to declining sales and order backlog, according to the speech to the remaining employees by Wyrmwood CEO Doug Costello.
From a Covid-fueled high of $30 million in annual sales, the company has now settled at around $15 million per year, Costello told employees. The order backlog has gone from a high of a year and a half at its peak to just two weeks now. His expectation was that as the order backlog dropped, sales would increase due to better service, but that didn’t happen, so staffing had to be cut to support the current order flow. “My thesis for this year was a failure,” Costello told employees.
Wyrmwood is a direct-to-consumer company that runs Kickstarters (which have been declining in results), exhibits at shows, and sells its products on its website. Its most popular product is the Wyrmwood Modular Table, which starts at $2,399. At one point, that product was among the top ten tabletop game Kickstarters of all time (see "Top Kickstarters").
While a reduction in force may have been necessary, Costello’s speech, and the decision to post the video, which showed not only Costello but the employees listening uncomfortably, have aroused a wave of sympathy for the affected employees and of antipathy toward Costello, at least according to the YouTube comments. It remains to be seen how this will all affect the company's prospects in the coming months.
