One Kings Lane Cuts 15 Percent of Staff, Kills Used Goods Marketplace

Online furnishings retailer One Kings Lane confirmed today that it has laid off 15 percent of its staff in a corporate restructuring. The company cut 79 jobs in total, a spokeswoman said. Re/code first reported the layoffs Tuesday evening.

As part of the restructuring, the company will shut down a new site it just launched in January called Hunters Alley, according to multiple sources familiar with the decision. The brainchild of co-founder Ali Pincus, Hunters Alley was an eBay-like marketplace where people could sell used furniture and home decor directly to others. One Kings Lane’s core online shop only sells furnishings from businesses.

The layoffs included some staff that worked on Hunters Alley, but were not confined to that department. Andrea Stanford, the executive who ran Hunters Alley, did not lose her job.

In an interview last year, Pincus said the Hunters Alley site would launch in June 2013. But it actually didn’t get off the ground until January. Now it’s being killed off as new CEO Dinesh Lathi looks to redirect the company’s focus back to its main site, sources said.

Lathi became CEO in April when former chief executive Doug Mack surprised many industry observers by leaving for the top job at sports retailer Fanatics. Lathi was formerly the company’s chief financial officer, and is said to want the company to pay as much attention to the bottom line as it does to top-line growth. For example, sources said Lathi has directed top executives to be more selective when approving employee business travel. One Kings Lane is not currently profitable and revenue growth has slowed recently, sources said.

The layoffs come less than six months after One Kings Lane raised a giant $112 million investment that valued the company at more than $900 million.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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