300 jobs at risk at M&S outlets in firm’s ‘leaner, faster’ revamp
AROUND 300 jobs are thought to be at risk at Marks & Spencer’s 21 stores around NI as the dramatic impact of Covid-19 on the retail sector deepens.
M&S has around 2,800 staff in Northern Ireland, where it opened its first store 53 years ago.
The retailer is axing 7,000 roles Uk-wide in the face of the crisis — a tally which exceeds earlier announcements by fellow chains Debenhams and Boots.
Its stores vary from large units such as Belfast city centre, Newry and Sprucefield selling food, clothing and household goods, to smaller Simply Food stores.
Northern Ireland recruitment specialist Max Mackin said such profound job cuts at a linchpin of the high street marked the end of an era of retail as a job for life.
And he said the growing trend of working from home was one factor influencing how city centre retailers like Marks and Spencer were planning for the future.
Retailers have already suffered a loss of custom to discount operators like Lidl, as well as to online retailers. M&S said the bulk of the cuts would be made across its stores, hitting around 12% of its 60,000 shop-based staff, as well as a smaller number of support centre and regional management workers. If 12% of its 2,800 Northern Ireland roles are cut, that could mean 336 job losses.
The roles are set to go over the next three months as M&S ramps up its overhaul. Mr Mackin, the chief executive of Black Fox and Reaction Recruitment, said a job in Marks and Spencer used to be a guarantee of job security. “If you got a job in the civil service,
Housing Executive or Marks and Spencer, it used to be a job for life, with so many perks and bonuses — it just made them a super employer.”
M&S stores in city centres in particular were now seeing their trade badly hit by the trend for working from home, he said.
“Office workers might have been nipping into M&S to buy groceries, to a buy a work shirt or a sandwich, or even put down a deposit on a new wardrobe — but now all of that is gone.”
He said such job losses also meant a knock-on effect of fewer workers coming into city and town centres — where footfall has already been much reduced.
The job losses add to many thousands already announced across the retail sector as the pandemic wreaks havoc on Britain’s high street, with department store chain Debenhams last week announcing another 2,500 staff cuts.
It had already axed 4,000 posts — with the result that around 30% of its staff have been let go since lockdown.
M&S expects a “significant” number of roles will be cut through voluntary departures and early retirement while it said it will also create some jobs through investing further in online warehousing and its new ambient food warehouse.
A spokesman said it would be “inappropriate” to comment on the numbers affected in Northern Ireland. “Our focus is speaking to colleagues about this, and it would of course be inappropriate to speculate about how many colleagues in a specific store or group of stores might opt for voluntary redundancy.”
The group’s latest jobs cull follows 950 job losses announced just last month across store management and head office roles.
But it insisted there were no further updates on store closures as it ploughs on with an ongoing review of its shop estate.
It comes as M&S revealed total sales in its hard-hit clothing and home arm plunged 29.9% in the eight weeks since shops reopened, with store sales tumbling 47.9% and online sales surging 39.2%.
It said sales declines were improving but that it was “clear