beenz rings the changes with strategic axe

Charles Cohen, founder, chairman and CEO of Web currency firm Beenz.com has revealed that the latest lay-offs may not be the last as the company is refocusing its strategy.

The London-based business cut 28 customer support, sales and technical jobs in San Francisco and New York, also disposing of 18 UK staff through voluntary redundancies in a streamlining objective. He said: "We are looking on a country by country basis, including the UK and US, from now until March. If the business and market doesn't make sense, we shall cut back," In an attempt to turn its fortunes around, Beenz announced yesterday the appointment of Philip Crawford as a non-executive to the board. He is charged with the mission of re-engineering the long-term success of the business. Cohen said: "Philip will bring objectivity through focusing on the firm as an external member of the company. We're acting now to move ourselves into different markets, so as not to be exposed in the near future." With four offices each in Europe and the Asia-Pacific area, Beenz is seeking a strategic partner for 'beenzCodes', the company's fledgeling discount voucher system, in a bid to target the offline market. The technology will act in a similar fashion to shopping vouchers, using alphanumeric codes printed on goods on supermarket shelves. The scheme will go head-to-head with other loyalty schemes such as Air Miles. The company expects to see online subscriber figures for its Beenz accounts hit five million shortly.