Boots and John Lewis shut stores in blow to high street
Thousands of job affected as coronavirus impacts on sales
High street giants John Lewis and Boots have announced store closures, putting thousands of jobs at risk.
The department store chain is to permanently close eight UK stores and potentially cut 1,300 jobs as its sales failed to rebound after the coronavirus lockdown, while the chemist plans to cut more than 4,000 jobs – 7 per cent of its workforce – as part of action to mitigate the “significant impact” of Covid-19
John Lewis said it will shut two department stores in Birmingham and Watford, four smaller “At Home”
shops in Croydon, Newbury, Swindon and Tamworth, as well as outlets at Heathrow Airport and St Pancras station in London. Each of the stores had been struggling financially before the pandemic, John Lewis said, with problems across the group exacerbated as people rapidly shifted to shopping online.
Boots recently announced it would close several branches across the UK. The latest job cuts will particularly affect staff in its Nottingham support office, as well as some deputy and assistant managers, beauty advisers and customer advisers across the UK.
And 48 Boots Opticians stores will be closed as a result of the restructuring, following a dive of 72 per cent in sales in the last three months compared to the same quarter last year.
The company’s retail sales fell by 48 per cent over the past three months as the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on businesses, despite Boots keeping numerous shops open.
Sharon White, chair of the John Lewis Partnership, said: “Closing a shop is always incredibly difficult and today’s announcement will come as very sad news to customers and partners.
“However, we believe closures are necessary to help us secure the sustainability of the partnership ... Redundancies are always an absolute last resort and we will do everything we can to keep as many partners as possible within our business.”
If the job cuts are confirmed after a consultation period, each of the affected staff – who are partners in the business under John Lewis’ ownership model – will receive funding to help them retrain.
John Lewis said it will contribute up to £3,000 towards a recognised qualification or course for up to two years for any partner with two years’ service or more. The company will also attempt to find alternative roles within John Lewis for staff who are affected.
Consumers have only slowly returned after non-essential shops reopened their doors on 15 June, with footfall just under half its pre-pandemic levels last week.
High streets have seen a 56 per cent drop in visitor numbers while retail parks, which tend to have bigger stores that are easier to adapt to social distancing, have seen a 25 per cent fall.
Retail is one of the UK’s biggest employers and one of the sectors hit hardest by the pandemic. Rishi Sunak announced targeted measures to support the hospitality industry this week which it is hoped will encourage people to visit restaurants on high streets and in shopping centre food courts, but the chancellor did not give retailers specific help.
Employers will receive a £1,000 bonus for each staff member they bring back from furlough and retain until January. The measure will help retailers, the British Retail Consortium said, but analysts forecast a further wave of job cuts this year.