Retail chain Marks & Spencer is cutting about 7,000 jobs as a result of disappointing sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company, which employs 78,000 people, has that on Tuesday announced.
That is considerably more than the previously announced 950 jobs that would be to disappear. This mainly concerns support functions, regional management and jobs at UK stores.
The cut is necessary because the company, which is also active (online) in the Netherlands, has seen its turnover plummet by 19.2 percent since the start of the corona crisis. In the Clothing and Home division, which covers the apparel activities, there was even a 50 percent decline in sales in the past nineteen weeks.
The jobs should disappear in the next three months. Marks & Spencer expects a ‘significant’ portion of this to be voluntary, through early retirement and voluntary departure. However, forced layoffs seem inevitable.
At the same time as the jobs disappear, new ones are added. This mainly concerns places in online activities, where the company has seen its revenues grow in recent months. The British do not say how many new jobs are involved.
Marks & Spencer had already decided to partly change course before the corona crisis, because the results were disappointing. COVID-19 has further accelerated this change.
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