Jobs to go in BHS closure
ARETAIL store in Widnes will shut next week with nearly 20 jobs on the line. BHS has been in administration since April with more than 160 shops across the country at risk of closure.
Adminstrators Duff & Phelps announced the business’s ‘orderly wind down’ in June and that jobs of 8,000 BHS staff members were ‘likely to go’, while another 3,000 roles were also at risk.
A total of 20 stores shut on Saturday, July 23, while another 30 are scheduled to close their doors for good on Saturday, July 30.
The remaining stores will shut by Saturday, August 20, and a Duff & Phelps spokeswoman has confirmed to the Weekly News that the store on Widnes Shopping Park will close on Wednesday, August 3.
She added that the Widnes store has 18 staff members.
On Monday, the spokeswoman said: “Philip Duffy and Benjamin Wiles, joint administrators of BHS, have informed employees that the remaining stores will commence closure sales from today.
“It is anticipated that failing any last minute rescue attempt, the last stores will cease trading by Saturday, August 20.”
Trade union Usdaw have condemned the announcement as the ‘final hammer blow’ to BHS staff, according to national officer Dave Gill.
He said: “Following the news that all remaining BHS stores will be closed by August 20, Usdaw calls on the administrators to redouble their efforts in finding a buyer for the remaining stores and to secure as many jobs as possible.
“We also call on Sir Philip Green to honour the two promises he made to BHS staff as soon as possible after the company went into administration.
“Firstly, to offer employment within the Arcadia Group to the blameless, dedicated and loyal staff who suddenly find themselves unemployed.
“Secondly, to ‘sort’ the pension scheme and we await details of what he proposes.”
Sir Philip and his family pocketed £400m in dividends during his 15-year ownership of the company, with BHS’s pension scheme nursing a £571m deficit when it fell into administration.
Mr Gill added that the 11,000 ‘hard working and loyal’ staff will feel ‘very angry and totally let down’ by a joint report from the work and pensions, and the business, innovation and skills committees into the running of BHS, which was published on Monday.
The document by MPs lays blame for the chain’s demise at the feet of former owner Sir Philip and others who ‘got rich or richer’ off the back of BHS, branding the situation as the ‘unacceptable face of capitalism’.
The report also accuses Dominic Chappell’s later ownership of the firm after buying it for £1 in 2015 as being ‘shambolic’.