Thousands of jobs at risk as M&S and Lloyds wield axe

MARKS & Spencer and Lloyds Banking Group have both announced a raft of changes which will affect thousands of jobs.

M&S is to close its distribution centre near Warrington, putting 450 jobs at risk, as part of several recent shake-ups.

In January, M&S said it was closing 14 stores, affecting nearly 500 jobs. The retailer also ditched its Neasden distribution site near London, putting a further 380 jobs at risk.

M&S said on Tuesday that it will close its Hardwick distribution centre, which is operated by XPO Logistics and DHL, in September.

The staff members affected have entered a consultation period with XPO and DHL.

The Hardwick site has become surplus to requirements in part due to M&S’s decision to automate operations at its factory in Bradford, which can handle more capacity.

Gordon Mowat, logistics director at M&S, said: “Closing Hardwick will help to remove some complexity from our network and speed up our supply chain. However, it was not a decision we took lightly and it is not in any way a reflection on the hard work and dedication provided by the teams on site.”

Meanwhile, more than 1,200 jobs are being axed at Lloyds Banking Group under plans to shut another 49 branches, in a further blow to Britain’s high streets.

The banking giant said 1,230 jobs will be cut across its branch network and some central functions as part of the move. It said it hopes to redeploy affected staff where possible, with compulsory redundancies a “last resort”.

The group is also creating 925 roles elsewhere in the business and insisted the overall job losses would total 305.

Lloyds pledged to expand its mobile branch network by another seven to 36 to help offset the branch closures. The branches will close across its Lloyds and Halifax banking brands between July and October this year.

A spokesman for Lloyds said: “These branch closures are in response to changing behaviour and the reduced number of transactions being made in branches.”

On the job cuts, he said: “The group’s policy is always to use natural turnover and to redeploy people wherever possible to retain their expertise and knowledge within the group.

“Since 2011, over 90 per cent of role reductions have been achieved through a combination of natural attrition, redeployment and voluntary redundancy.”