Selfridges today told staff it plans to cut 450 jobs – around 14% of its total headcount – as annual sales are set to be ‘significantly less’ than last year due to the pandemic.
The famous department store, which was founded in 1908, said it is facing the ‘toughest year’ in its recent history and had been forced to make ‘fundamental changes’ due to Covid.
Britain’s high streets have been hammered by the crisis as millions of shoppers move to online shopping, and experts predict there will eventually be 250,000 redundancies across the sector.
Last week, Dyson said it would cut 600 jobs in the UK – mainly from retail and customer service roles – while Marks & Spencer announced it would shed 950 staff in the first wave of a cull that will hit thousands of workers.
Selfridges – pictured – has said it plans to cut 450 jobs from its stores as it faces the ‘toughest year’ in its recent history
Selfridges managing director Anne Pitcher said high streets were changing even before Covid-19 and the business has now been forced to make ‘fundamental changes’.
She promised staff who are on furlough that the fact they were not working now would have no effect on whether their role would be impacted. She promised more information to staff on Wednesday.
In an email to staff, Ms Pitcher said: ‘As a creative business at the forefront of retail, we have a proud history of leading the way, however the speed and magnitude of what is happening right now and the impact on trading means we must make some more fundamental changes to our organisation to stay ahead and realise a more sustainable future.
‘Like many others, we are feeling the effects and acknowledge that recovery will be slow, with sales this year forecast to be significantly less than they were in 2019. It will, without doubt, be the toughest year we have experienced in our recent history.
‘As a family business, the hardest decisions are the ones that affect our people, which is why it pains me to share news today of the toughest decision we have ever had to take that we will, very regrettably, need to make a 14% net reduction in our overall headcount, approximately 450 roles.’
Shops are now allowed to welcome customers into stores but millions are still staying away, with footfall down 65 per cent last month compared to last year and sales tumbling by 48 per cent over the past three months.
However, there are signs of hope in the wider job market, with more than a million vacancies still being advertised last week, as experts pointed to a significant increase in positions for IT professionals.
Hundreds of job losses are expected at M&S as part of an ongoing restructuring plan which could ultimately see thousands of positions go.
The strategy, dubbed ‘never the same again’ at the chain’s annual results in May, is expected to bring about a complete overhaul in the business in the coming months as it adapts to the long-term impact of the pandemic.
Sources close to the plans told Sky News that several thousand jobs were expected to be lost over the coming months as chief executive Steve Rowe pushes through the company’s restructuring programme.
Marks & Spencer will axe 950 staff in the first wave of a cull that will hit thousands of workers. Pictured is a store in Manchester
The leisure and hospitality sector has borne the brunt of coronavirus job cuts, with London’s Southbank Centre revealing last week it may have to cut two-thirds of its staff and Canterbury Cathedral asking workers to take voluntary redundancy.
The Southbank, which is the biggest arts complex in Europe, warns that 400 of the 600 jobs at the centre in Waterloo are at risk, despite the Government providing £1.57billion worth of financial aid to the arts sector as a whole.
Chief executive Elaine Bedell, Hayward Gallery director Ralph Rugoff and music director Gillian Moore said in a letter to members that staff had been told that ‘very significant losses’ were likely by the end of the financial year.
The Southbank Centre comprises a number of venues for the performing arts. Its three main buildings are the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Hayward Gallery.
The organisation, which has furloughed most of its 600 employees, has predicted that it could face a £5.1million deficit for the 2020-21 financial year, the Guardian reported.
And Canterbury Cathedral’s 300 staff were previously told it would have to make job cuts in a bid to counter a ‘substantial loss of income’ as a result of the coronavirus.
Unemployment increased by 34,000 reaching 1.3 million in April while the total figure for workers on British company payrolls fell by 649,000 between March and June, Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows.
But demand for web designers and developers has surged by 15.5 per cent over the last month, the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) has revealed.
The industry group says large and small British firms now realise digital skills are essential to all components of business – such as online sales through websites, improving marketing efforts and increasing productivity.
Deputy chief executive Anthony Walker told the BBC: ‘We’ve seen two years of digital transformation happening in the space of two weeks.
‘A lot of business leaders we’ve been talking to, and survey data, shows that digital will be more important to their business, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.’