After Stratasys laid off 1/5 of its employees and closed down all three MakerBot retail stores, the MakerBot restructuring continues as Stratasys lays off the general manager of MakerBot Europe, Alexander Hafner. In an email obtained by Motherboard, vice president and general manager of Stratasys’ Europe, Middle East, and Asia division, Andy Middleton, writes:
“I want to take this opportunity of thanking Alexander Hafner on behalf of all the MakerBot staff for his past contribution to the business, and wish him all the very best for his personal and professional future.” Middleton goes on to say, “I am convinced that these changes and the upcoming integration of our MakerBot business will lead to the next successful chapter in our business and will further accelerate growth for us in this exciting market.”
Hafner joined the brand when it purchased Hafner’s Hafner Büro in order to establish MakerBot Europe last year. Shortly after the acquisition, Hafner was already discussing with 3DPI the potential for opening MakerBot Innovation Centers in Europe. Though Hafner won’t be continuing with the company, the European Innovation Centers go on without him, with one such center already opening in Italy. Hafner will be replaced by Andreas Langfeld, the Stratasys vice president formerly charged with operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Of the recent layoff, MakerBot CEO Jonathan Jaglom told Motherboard, “The market was not as big as we thought it was two years ago.” Later on, Jaglom, who Motherboard points out is the son of Stratasys chairman Elchanon, stated, “Layoffs are always hard for morale. I’ve been doing my best to help,” he said. “I’m not a Stratasys guy. I’m not a corporate guy. I’m much more of a MakerBot guy. It had to be done for financial justifications. The numbers were just not there… The tremendous growth this company has gone through—600 percent a year. How do you do that? The outcome of fast growth to that extent is, you’re bound to—I don’t want to call them mistakes, but you’re bound to lose focus.”
The CEO ended by saying about the layoffs, “Many of these people are under 30, and haven’t had this kind of hardship at work before. MakerBot has a lot of great things in its company culture that need to be preserved, starting with the brand. The brand is very solid. I have absolutely no intention to change that whatsoever, that would be a very bad move.”
For the most part, Stratasys subsidiaries boast a great deal of Independence from their parent company, something I’ve been told by MakerBot engineers and Solidscape representatives alike. It seems that, as a result of the issues seen with the consumer brand up until now, which led Stratasys to write off a good will impairment charge for their purchase of MakerBot, Stratasys seeks to gain greater control over their subsidiary. For that reason, they’ve brought in the current CEO, Jason Jaglom and, as they seek to make up for lost funds in one way or another, continue to restructure their consumer division so that it is more in line with their overall vision. With Stratasys rebuilding the brand, hopefully Hafner and the previous MakerBot employees will be able to go onto to find greener pastures elsewhere.
