Samsung lays off around 100 employees in India
What's the story
Samsung India has asked around 80-100 executives in its television and home appliance divisions to leave, The Economic Times reported. The decision comes as a result of rising costs, declining consumer demand, and a larger restructuring process affecting the company's operations in India. The layoffs are being carried out in phases and impact employees at all levels including directors and team leads at headquarters as well as branch/area managers.
Impact scale
Layoffs impact both direct and off-roll workers
The job cuts are primarily focused on Samsung's television and home appliance businesses. However, the scale of the layoffs could be larger than anticipated.
An industry executive told ET that as much as 25% of Samsung's sales and marketing staff in its electronics business could be affected by these layoffs.
This includes both direct employees and off-roll workers hired through manpower agencies.
Employee details
Termination letters issued daily in small batches
Samsung's domestic electronics sales team comprises around 550-600 executives, in addition to its much larger smartphone sales organization.
An affected employee told ET that termination letters have been issued daily over the past few days in small batches, with some employees being asked to leave without serving their notice periods.
Samsung is offering three months' salary plus an additional month's pay for each year of service as severance.
Business struggles
Samsung India facing pressure from rising costs, declining demand
Samsung India is facing pressure from sharply higher memory chip prices and a nearly 10% decline in the rupee through FY26, making smartphones and other electronic products more expensive.
The Indian smartphone market is also weakening with an estimated 11-12% year-on-year decline in volumes.
Despite these challenges, Samsung's smartphone workforce has been spared from this round of layoffs as mobile phones account for around three-fourths of its revenue in India.
Operational changes
Ongoing restructuring process at Samsung India
Samsung is also restructuring its physical operations in India by consolidating its branch network.
Several offices are being merged, which is resulting in some positions becoming redundant.
The company had also proposed merging its home appliance and television sales teams to reduce costs and management layers, but that merger has now been postponed to the December quarter.