Marks & Spencer to cut 7,000 jobs over the next three months

Marks & Spencer employs around 78,000 people

18 August 2020

Marks & Spencer will cut 7,000 jobs over the next three months.

The culling comes as coronavirus hit the business hard over the past five months.

Jobs in central support, regional management and UK stores will all be affected.

The company said: "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."

Chief Executive 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."

Particularly badly hit has been the company's clothes arm which has seen sales plummet. Total revenues at the home and clothing division have plummeted by 50% over the past 19 weeks, with the company only noting minimal improvement since lockdown restrictions were eased.

Overall group sales over the coronavirus period are down 19.2%, although online and food have performed.

The company said: "Clothing & Home trading in the stores remains well below last year, with online and home delivery strong.

"It is clear that there has been a material shift in trade and whilst it is too early to predict with precision where a new post Covid sales mix will settle, we must act now to reflect this change."

During lockdown, the company said it had learnt to work more flexibly, using the same staff to man both the food aisles and the clothing section of the stores. New Microsoft technology will also allow it to reduce layers of management.

The job cuts are another hammer blow for the ailing retail industry and the UK economy. Last week stats showed the UK was officially in recession.

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