Bed Bath & Beyond is closing 150 stores and slashing 20% of its corporate staff

• Bed Bath & Beyond announced in a financial update for investors that it is closing about 150 stores.
• The company is also cutting its corporate staff by about 20% as sales fell 25% last quarter.

Bed Bath & Beyond plans to close about 150 of its stores and cut its corporate workforce by 20%.

The announcement was made ahead of a financial-update call on Wednesday. Shares of the retailer's stock fell by more than 24% after Bed Bath & Beyond revealed sales across its stores had dropped 25% in the previous quarter.

The company plans to cut costs by $250 million in 2022 via layoffs and store closures and has already begun shutting down some of its flagship stores that it has identified as underperforming.

"The company continues to evaluate its portfolio and leases, in addition to staffing, to ensure alignment with customer demand and go-forward strategy," Bed Bath & Beyond said in a press release.

The retailer also plans to shed a third of its flagship brands and expand further into national brands. It also announced that the Buybuy Baby chain of stores will remain with the company.

"We have taken a thorough look at our business, and today, we are announcing immediate actions aimed to increase customer engagement, drive traffic, and recapture market share," Sue Gove, director and interim chief executive officer, said in the press release. "This includes changing our merchandising and inventory strategy, which will be rooted in National Brands. Additionally, we are focused on driving digital and foot traffic, as well as optimizing our store fleet. We believe these changes will have a widespread positive impact across customer experience, inventory assortment, supply chain execution and cost structure."

Bed Bath & Beyond is one of several companies to initiate a sweeping round of layoffs in recent months as shoppers have begun to cutback amid soaring inflation and concerns of an impending recession.