Juicero admits its hype machine is still too expensive
The company is cutting 25 percent of staff as it focuses on lowering prices.
The next chapter of Juicero's troubled saga will include staff layoffs, according to a company letter obtained by Fortune. The company's CEO, Jeff Dunn, told employees that along with a focus on its second generation juicer, and bringing down its cost in particular, Juicero would be cutting around 25 percent of its staff. Most of those layoffs will affect sales and marketing teams.
Juicero's first machine, originally priced at $700 and later reduced to $400, was put on blast by Bloomberg, which showed that you don't actually need the juicer to get juice from its packets, you just have to squeeze them. And its components were found to be unnecessarily complicated. Now the company is reportedly aiming for a $200 price point for its next version. "The current prices of $399 for the Press and $5 - $7 for produce Packs are not a realistic way for us to fulfill our mission at the scale to which we aspire," said Dunn in the letter.
Juicero will be concentrating its efforts on product development and manufacturing as it continues to design its next juicer. Dunn also noted that Juicero founder Doug Evans, while staying on as a board member, would be stepping back from daily operations. In his letter, Dunn claims that after Juicero offered returns for full refunds following the Bloomberg report, less than five percent of customers chose to return their press. But, regardless, the planned price cuts and staff reductions show that the company knows its current model isn't sustainable.
