OnePlus downsizing European teams (Update: New statement on the matter)

Update, April 27, 2020 (10:53 AM ET):  Over the weekend, OnePlus posted a statement on its official forums helping to explain the recent news (described below) that it is downsizing some of its European teams.

The statement doesn’t fully explain why OnePlus is downsizing, other than “to better streamline our operations while continuing to meet the needs of our growing community,” which is basically corporate jargon for “cut costs.” However, it does confirm that the downsizing is only happening in three markets (Germany, France, and the United Kingdom) and will affect 20 employees. Those affected will be receiving redundancy packages, at least in some cases.

OnePlus also says that Europe remains “a key region” for the brand.

While this statement isn’t as totally transparent as maybe it could have been, it does at least show that OnePlus isn’t intending to pull out of certain places in Europe and does give us some more specifics about the situation.

Original article, April 24, 2020 (03:30 PM ET): OnePlus appears to be struggling in the European market, as the company is downsizing heavily, reducing its workforce in the region by a substantial margin.

According to a report from Engadget, the primary countries seeing layoffs are the UK, France, and Germany. These markets are seeing reductions by as much as 80%. No exact figures were released in terms of a number of employees who were laid off, but no matter how you spin it, 80% is a tremendous amount of the company’s workforce in that particular region.

As indicated by the report, some areas have skeleton crews of as few as three employees remaining within the affected European regions.

In a statement to Engadget, the company cited the move as normal restructuring in order to allow it to better focus on key markets. A OnePlus spokesperson spoke on the matter:

Europe is a very important market for us and has been since the beginning of OnePlus. We’re doing some strategic restructuring in Europe, and in fact are even hiring in the region.

Notably, the company’s devices haven’t taken off in some European markets as well as others. For example, in the UK, only one carrier offers the newly released OnePlus 8.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom for the company’s European ventures, as the report indicated Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, and Belgium were unaffected by the downsizing, implying that OnePlus still sees growth potential in those markets.