John Lewis to close eight more stores across the UK putting 1300 jobs at risk
John Lewis stores at Croydon, Watford, Heathrow Terminal Two, and St Pancras International are among eight that will not reopen, the department store chain confirmed today.
The Standard revealed last week that the partnership’s chairman Dame Sharon White had warned staff that not all its branches would return to trading after the coronavirus lockdown.
Today the company revealed the locations of the branches that are considered unviable, putting 1,300 jobs at risk.
They include two “full service” department stores, the 30 year old Harlequin Shopping Centre branch in Watford, and the huge 136,000 sq ft outlet in the Birmingham Bull Ring shopping mall, which only opened in 2015.
Smaller “At Home” format branches will shut at Croydon, Swindon, Tamworth and Newbury.
The Heathrow and St Pancras shops are much smaller “travel hub” outlets.
In a statement the company said: “Prior to the pandemic, the eight shops identified were already financially challenged and the pandemic has accelerated the switch from shopping in-store to online. Before the virus struck, 40 percent of John Lewis sales were online. This could now be closer to 60 to 70 percent of total sales this year and next.”
It added: “If redundancies are confirmed, every effort would be made to find new roles where possible for Partners who wish to remain within the Partnership. Opportunities could include transferring to local Waitrose shops or working for johnlewis.com and waitrose.com as they continue to grow.
The Partnership has also made a commitment to provide support through a unique Retraining Fund, which will contribute up to £3,000 towards a recognised qualification or course for up to two years for any Partner with two years’ service or more.”
At today's lobby briefing, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We understand that this will be a difficult time for employees and their families and we stand ready to support them in any way that we can.
"I understand this is part of the John Lewis and Partners restructuring which recognises that more people have switched from shopping in store to online.
"John Lewis Partnership has said that redundancies are always an absolute last resort and every effort would be made to find new roles where possible for those who wish to remain within the partnership such as transferring to local Waitrose shops or online operations."
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