Thousands of jobs at risk as M&S to shut 100 stores
MARKS & Spencer was accused of “salami-slicing” an already struggling UK high street yesterday after bosses announced they were closing more than 100 stores by 2022.
Union bosses reacted with dismay as the retail giant said it was stepping up a “transformation programme” that will put thousands of jobs at risk.
The closures will affect its clothing and home stores, which have underperformed for several years.
The company said yesterday: “Over 100 M&S stores [are] to close in total by 2022 as radical transformation plan continues at pace.”
M&S named 14 stores earmarked for closure yesterday, including London’s Bayswater and Holloway Road branches, affecting 872 workers.
The announcement came as Bank of England governor Mark Carney warned business rates had become a “real issue” for UK retailers.
But news of the impending closures infuriated unions, which pointed to existing problems in the retail sector.
David Gill, national officer for shopworkers’ union Usdaw, said: “This salami-slicing approach to reorganising the business is extremely distressing for the staff.
“Usdaw has thousands of members working for Marks & Spencer and the staff now need, more than ever, the representation and support of an independent trade union.
“We again urge M&S management to abandon their long-held resistance to recognising Usdaw as the union to represent its staff.
“It is unfair that they continue to refuse their staff access to Usdaw, having made the decision on their behalf not to engage with a trade union.”
But those campaigning to keep high streets vibrant said the closures should not be viewed in a purely negative way.
Alex Schlagman, co-founder of Savethehighstreet.org, said: “This presents opportunities to other businesses to fill the void.
“But we do need to think of ways to develop more footfall in the high street. Business rates are definitively a factor but there are other things going on.”
Earlier, Mr Carney warned: “Margins in the sector are very tight and births and deaths of firms – even historic names – are frequent.”
He said conversations with retail bosses revealed that the drivers of this “phenomenon” were “very much linked to the changing spending habits of British consumers, a lot more steady growth of online, much less footfall”.
He added: “As a consequence of that, there are many retailers left with legacy assets and costs that make them uncompetitive... then on top of that there are difficult trading conditions.”
The mass M&S closures are part of a five-year turnaround plan spearheaded by chairman Archie Norman and chief executive Steve Rowe.
They are seeking to save costs by shutting stores and distribution centres in a wide-ranging efficiency drive as the company’s financial performance deteriorates. M&S retail and property director Sacha Berendji said: “We are making good progress with our plans to reshape our store estate to be more relevant to our customers and support our online growth plans.
“Closing stores isn’t easy but it is vital for the future of M&S.
“Where we have closed stores, we are seeing an encouraging number of customers moving to nearby stores and enjoying shopping with us in a better environment, which is why we’re continuing to transform our estate with pace.”
Bayswater, Fleetwood Outlet in Lancashire and Newton Abbot Outlet in Devon will close by the end of July. Stores in Clacton, Essex, and Holloway Road in north London will shut up shop by early 2019.
Darlington, East Kilbride, Falkirk, Kettering, Newmarket, New Mersey Speke, Northampton, Stockton and Walsall are earmarked for closure and will enter a period of consultation with employees. The announcement came a day before M&S is expected to unveil another troubling set of annual figures, with today’s results set to show underlying pre-tax profit across the group falling six per cent to £573million.