The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Up to 6,000 jobs to go at Whitbread
A Fife distillery has got into the festive spirit early by opening a pop-up Christmas shop in St Andrews.
Gin brand Eden Mill is opening five festive pop-up stores across Scotland, which will create 25 jobs.
The Market Street store, which opened yesterday, is in the old Burns sweet shop, which closed in January.
Eden Mill saw its online sales grow by around 600% during lockdown.
But despite the online sales boom during Covid-19, co-founder Tony Kelly said traditional retail shops would still play a key role for Christmas shopping.
He said: “Nothing compares to the experience of seeing and sampling the gifts before you make that all-important Christmas purchase.
“Despite social distancing, we believe shopping on the high street still has a vital role to play in this year’s Christmas trade, which is why we are expanding the number of festive pop-ups from the three we had last year to five in 2020.”
The Eden Mill shops will stock the brand’s festive range and also include an exclusive gin available for in-store customers only.
The St Andrews shop is open days a week until Christmas. seven
Up to 6,000 jobs are being axed at Premier Inn owner Whitbread as the group warned the coronavirus crisis will continue to hammer demand.
The group said the cuts would impact 18% of the total workforce across its hotel and restaurant brands, which also includes the Beefeater pubs and Brewers Fayre chains.
It is hoping a “significant proportion” of the job cuts will be made through voluntary redundancy and lowered contracted hours for some staff.
Whitbread said the plans come as demand is set to remain subdued in the short to medium-term and with the government’s furlough scheme coming to an end next month.
The job losses also come on top of cuts to reduce its head office workforce by up to a fifth, impacting around 150 jobs.
Alison Brittain, chief executive of Whitbread, said: “With demand for travel remaining subdued, we are now having to make some very difficult decisions, and it is with great regret that today we are announcing our intention to enter into a consultation process.”