STORE WOES
Fenwick warns of ‘significant’ redundancies
JOBS are to go at Tyneside retail giant Fenwick after the firm’s chief executive announced plans for a major business review.
A “significant proportion” of the firm’s 2,000-strong workforce could be affected by proposals to make sweeping changes to the way the Newcastle institution is run, Robbie Feather has confirmed.
Mr Feather has announced a three-pronged strategy to futureproof the business amid testing times for the retail trade which will involve further development of its department stores and the longawaited launch of an e-commerce website.
Most significantly, however, the strategy involves a far-reaching review of the firm’s operations that will affect management functions across the business, which runs nine stores across the UK including its flagship department store on Northumberland Street in Newcastle
Each of the firm’s stores have always been run autonomously. Directors are now seeking to centralise many functions, and several senior appointments have been made to oversee group-wide functions which have, until now, been carried out by each store individually.
Jayne Demuro, who previously worked at Selfridges and Soho House, will manage all merchandising, while Jeremy Collins – who worked with Mr Feather at John Lewis – becomes property director, and Pablo Sueiras becomes central retail operations director.
Mr Feather stresses Fenwick will “maintain the localness” of each store.
He said: “Going forward we want to have conversations with suppliers and customers with one voice.
“If you take buying, for example, we currently buy brands across all our stores so it is more sensible to buy it through one team.
“We are going to review the way we run things – [it’s] a restructure to move away from single-store running of operations.
“And Newcastle is our heritage and our largest, flagship store so we will be investing in our functions up there. The downside of this will be a
lot of change.
“It’s hugely unsettling for our teams and we will act with integrity while the consultation is ongoing.
“There will be redundancies. I can’t tell you how many because it is a broad review.
“A significant proportion of the workforce could be affected because we are looking at the way we run our business across multifunctions.
“We are going into formal consultations in May and that will determine the structure and how many posts are made redundant, but there will be new opportunities through the new structure.”
Mr Feather said the firm’s strategy to future-proof the business also focuses on turning Fenwick into a more multi-channel business.
A new website and online platform will be launched next month, and customers will be able to shop online from next year following the painstaking build of the platform by agency Astound.
The company’s department stores are also set to be further developed, with particular attention set to be spent on its fashion areas as well as food and drinking offering.
The high street favourite’s finance and HR functions are set to move to Newcastle.
Behind the scenes, offices on the store’s fourth floor are currently being reconfigured to accommodate the back office functions. Investments in IT have also been made.