Who Gives A Crap moves global marketing team to Australia
CEO Simon Griffiths said "limited overlap in our working hours has made it harder for us to do our best work."
Toilet paper upstart Who Gives A Crap has begun rebuilding its global marketing team in Australia following a major international restructure which cut around 50 roles.
The environmentally focused retailer is recruiting an onshore GM of global growth marketing and a global director of creative strategy, who will oversee markets including the UK, US, and Canada.
The recruitment follows comments from CEO Simon Griffiths that the company’s international structure was “currently not set up to thrive.”
Announcing the layoffs in August, Griffiths wrote in a blog post: “As we’ve grown, we’ve brought in amazing people from around the world, regardless of location. That approach helped us build our global team quickly, but it has come at a cost.
“Despite everyone’s best efforts, working across time zones with limited overlap in our working hours has made it harder for us to do our best work.
“Coordinating even simple BAU tasks can be fairly challenging. Calendars are overloaded, and it often takes weeks, instead of hours or days, for live conversations to happen. This absorbs a huge amount of energy.”
As a result, around 20% of staff, mostly overseas-based, were let go, with roles being relocated to Australian time zones. The company also plans to “simplify some of [its] teams.”
As of October, several US and UK-based creative and marketing employees are now “open to work” on Linkedin.
Among these is UK-based marketing director David Titman, who wrote on his Linkedin: “After an incredible three-year ride at Who Gives A Crap, the recent restructure means my role will soon be coming to an end.
“While I’m naturally sad to leave a team and brand I’ve loved being part of, I’m hugely proud of what we achieved together.”
Griffiths co-founded Who Gives A Crap with Danny Alexander and Jehan Ratnatunga in 2012 in Melbourne. They resolved to sell eco-friendly products and donate part of the profits to charity.
Over the years, the brand has built a marketing profile centred on cheeky, irreverent humour and sustainability-focused messaging, supported by agencies including 72andSunny, Hatched and Cartology.
The brand notably rocketed – and was for a time sold out – during the Covid pandemic and its resulting shortage of toilet paper.
Despite the restructure, Griffiths said that the brand is still “committed to highly effective and well-resourced teams in the US, UK, and Australia, and will continue to invest in new markets.”
The company also recently hired former DDB Group Melbourne chief strategy officer and Sweat global brand lead Karen Dwyer as an interim brand and creative executive while Los Angeles-based Alexander is on parental leave.
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