M&S cuts 7,000 jobs
Marks & Spencer will have to cut 7,000 jobs over the next three months, which is about a tenth of its workforce. The company said it is hoping a good proportion of the cuts will be “voluntary redundancy” or “early retirement”.
A week after the UK was declared in official economic recession, M&S gives the announcement: 7,000 jobs will be cut over the next three months.
But there is a plan. The company was hit hard by coronavirus, only last month it announced 950 store management and head office jobs were also at risk. During lockdown, M&S Chief executive Steve Rowe said customers will “never shop the same way again” and now the company is making plans to face the crisis learning from it, by changing the way they do business and starting a new programme.
A spokeperson for the company confirmed: “We expect a significant proportion will be through voluntary departures and early retirement. In line with our longstanding value of treating our people well, we will now begin an extensive programme of communication with colleagues. .. The streamlining programme is an important step in delivering on our cost savings programme and ensuring we emerge from the crisis with a lower cost base and a stronger more resilient business”.
Steve Rowe added: “In May we outlined our plans to learn from the crisis, accelerate our transformation and deliver a stronger, more agile business in a world in which some customer habits were changed forever. Three months on and our Never the Same Again programme is progressing; albeit the outlook is uncertain and we remain cautious. .. As part of our Never The Same Again programme to embed the positive changes in ways of working through the crisis, we are today announcing proposals to further streamline store operations and management structures. These proposals are an important step in becoming a leaner, faster business set up to serve changing customer needs and we are committed to supporting colleagues through this time.”
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