Mass Reassignment of 40 Employees on Standby, What’s Happening at Able CNC?

40 Employees, Equivalent to 10% of Total Staff, Placed on Standby Transfer
From Team Leaders to Managers and Assistant Managers Included

[Asia Economy Reporters Lim Hye-seon and Jo Yoo-jin] It has been confirmed that Able C&C, a cosmetics company whose performance sharply declined due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), has taken personnel restructuring measures by placing about 40 employees on standby. Able C&C is a KOSPI-listed company operating cosmetics road shops such as Missha, A'PIEU, and Nunk.]

According to the cosmetics and distribution industry on the 28th, Able C&C held interviews with about 40 employees, accounting for about 10% of the total employees (385), on the 24th, and notified them of standby orders. This included team leaders, managers, assistant managers, and staff members.

This standby order measure is understood to have been carried out during the process of merging and abolishing departments. CEO Jo Jeong-yeol, who took office in March, initiated a large-scale organizational restructuring. Recently, Able C&C announced through the company intranet, "There is an increasing need for change across the company, and internally, organizational restructuring and personnel transfers are necessary," adding, "This organizational restructuring is being carried out to create a more efficient and productive organization through structural improvement." It further explained, "The direction focused on integrating overlapping organizations and personnel, changing the roles of some departments due to environmental changes, establishing new departments to strengthen sales capabilities by channel, and creating organizations to enhance sales support capabilities."

An insider familiar with the situation said, "Those placed on standby have been instructed to work separately from existing employees starting this week," adding, "Employees are anxious due to the sudden large-scale standby orders."

Able C&C has experienced ups and downs due to deteriorating performance for several years even before COVID-19. After the founder and former CEO Seo Young-pil sold his company shares to IMM Private Equity (IMM PE) in 2017, internal conflicts arose, and the impact of the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) incident was also significant. Operating profit, which was 24.3 billion KRW in 2016, was halved to 11.2 billion KRW in 2017. In 2018, it recorded an operating loss. Although it succeeded in returning to profitability last year, it turned to a deficit again in the first quarter of this year due to the COVID-19 situation. Related industries view the current standby order measure as highly likely to expand into personnel restructuring.

An Able C&C official stated, "It is true that the standby orders were given mainly to personnel with overlapping duties during the company-wide organizational restructuring process," adding, "We are trying to handle it internally as much as possible."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.