Dental-supply seller Oralis lays off 24 as it cuts expenses

The trying times in Seattle's dot-com community continue.

Oralis.com, a business-to-business Web site for the dental-products industry, yesterday laid off 24 employees, or about 30 percent of its work force, to reduce costs.

The company said the layoffs were "across the board" and affected all departments except Web-site building and coding.

"It's been a tough day," said Pierre Gallant, Oralis' CEO. "It's not a right human decision, but it's the right business decision."

The affected employees were given notice yesterday morning and told the layoffs were effective immediately. They were encouraged to take the rest of the day off.

"We told them it was a nice day and you get paid for the balance of your package," Gallant said. "We told them to enjoy the nice weather."

Gallant said the start-up was not in financial trouble. The company, which launched its site about a year ago, received $4 million in funding in February.

Gallant said Oralis received additional funding recently from investors but declined to specify the amount. He also declined to reveal the company's cash position or sales, but added the company has paying customers.

"We're substantially well-funded," he said.

Still, employees at Oralis likely will see other cost-cutting moves. All executives will take a pay cut, though Gallant declined to be more specific.

And Gallant hinted that the company may close one of its two offices in town, possibly the Westlake location where Gallant and the management work. If the company does that, it would consolidate operations in its other office, in Fremont.

"Nonessential entertainment" expenses will be cut and traveling sales teams, typically consisting of two employees, will be a one-person job.

"We've always been frugal," Gallant said. "We fly red-eye whenever we can do so. We believe in Frontier Airline. We stay in Motel 6s from the day one. And we share rooms, including executives."

Roger Yu's phone message number is 206-464-3119. His e-mail address is: ryu@seattletimes.com.