M&S (Marks and Spencer) store in central London. Credit: AFP
Photo
Marks and Spencer, the British retail chain selling
clothes and food, is to cut around 7,000 jobs as the coronavirus
pandemic increasingly pushes customers to shop online, it said
Tuesday.
The job cuts, to be carried out over the next three months,
include losses from its central support centre, in regional
management and in its UK stores, M&S said in a statement.
Marks employs more than 80,000 staff, of whom the vast majority
work in the UK.
Chief executive Steve Rowe said the company would become a
“leaner, faster business set up to serve changing customer
needs”.
Alongside the job cuts, M&S “expects to create a number” of
positions to help the group meet a surge in online demand for its
products.
While total group sales slumped by around one fifth in the 19
weeks to August 8 — which included most of the period Britain was
in lockdown — online revenue surged nearly 40 percent, Marks said
Tuesday.
“It is clear that there has been a material shift in trade and
whilst it is too early to predict with precision where a new
post-COVID sales mix will settle, we must act now to reflect this
change,” Marks said.
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The company joins the likes of UK department store chains
Debenhams and John Lewis, as well as pharmacy group Boots, in
cutting thousands of jobs owing to fallout from COVID-19.
Official data last week showed that Britain’s economy shrank by
one fifth in the second quarter, more than any European neighbour,
as the lockdown plunged the country into its deepest recession on
record.
Even though the UK economy is beginning to rebound as the
government eases strict confinement measures — gross domestic
product grew by 8.7 percent in June — analysts expect a surge in
unemployment by the end of the year.
Finance minister Rishi Sunak plans to end in October the
government’s furlough scheme that is paying up to 80 percent of
wages for around 10 million workers during the pandemic.
–AFP
Read more https://swordpress.com.ng/2020/08/18/uk-retailer-marks-and-spencer-axes-7000-jobs-on-virus-fallout/