Jobs in the balance as closing down sale starts
A question mark hangs over the jobs of workers at troubled budget fashion store Peacocks in Rutherglen, where posters have appeared in its windows advertising a closing down sale.
Peacocks was seen as a flagship retailer when it moved into a 7325 sq ft unit in the Rutherglen Exchange Shopping Centre in the summer of 2015. The store occupies nine per cent of the shopping centre’s total retail space.
Rutherglen E xchange Shopping Centre bosses were still in the dark about the future of Peacocks yesterday, having been issued with no statements f rom the Card i f f- based firm about a possible closure date or number of jobs under threat.
High street tycoon Philip Day was this week reportedly rushing to piece together a deal that would let him keep Peacocks, while jettisoning Edinburgh Woollen Mill ( EWM), the chain on which he built his fortune.
He has announced plans to shed 600 jobs on the high street and close 50 stores across his Edinburgh Woolen Mill empire.
So far, details of the Peacocks stores earmarked for closure have not been released.
On October 9, Day’s EWM Group, which houses Peacocks and other brands including Jaeger, Austin Reed and Ponden Home, filed notice of its intention to appoint administrators, which is due to expire tomorrow.
That same day, it is understood that bosses wrote to staff, warning that the national and local lockdowns during the pandemic had hit sales heavily.
EWM employs about 20,000 people and traded from more than 1,100 outlets before the pandemic. Steve Simpson, the group’s chief executive, said that the past seven months have been “extremely difficult” as he warned normal trading will be “impossible” in the wake of a second coronavirus outbreak.
“Like every retailer, we have found the past seven months extremely difficult,” he said.
“This situation has grown worse in recent weeks as we have had to deal with a series of false rumours about our payments and trading which have impacted our credit insurance.
“Traditionally, the group has always traded with strong cash reserves and a conservative balance sheet but these stories, the reduction in credit insurance – against the backdrop of the lockdown – and now this second wave of Covid-19 and all the local lockdowns, have made normal trading impossible.
“As directors we have a duty to the business, our staff, our customers and our creditors to find the very best solution in this brutal environment.” Simpson previously warned that the move to appoint administrators will “inevitably” result in job cuts and closures. The Rutherglen store was officially opened by MSP James Kelly on July 1, 2015.