The job cuts are designed to promote “operating expense efficiency,” the company said Thursday in its fourth-quarter earnings statement. Bloomberg earlier reported Toast’s plan to eliminate positions. The company will incur about $50 million in costs such as severance, it added. Affected employees were told Thursday, according to a person familiar with the cuts, who asked not to be identified because that information wasn’t public.
Known for processing payments for restaurants, Toast went public in September 2021. Its shares have plunged 52% since then amid slowdowns in the food industry and competition from companies like Block. Toast generated 2023 annual revenue of $3.87 billion, a 42% increase from a year earlier. The company employed 4,500 workers as of the end of 2022, according to regulatory filings.
The shares declined 4.7% to $19.20 on news of the workforce reduction. In extended trading, the stock jumped more than 8% on the earnings report, with Toast projecting 2024 adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of about $210 million. Analysts, on average, estimated $170 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. —Brody Ford, Bloomberg News
