Marks & Spencer: job cuts and sales crisis

Due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the drop in store visits, British-based Marks and Spencer has announced it will lay off 7,000 employees over the next three months. The job reductions will mainly be made on a voluntary basis or by early retirement.

"In May, we announced that we would learn from the crisis, accelerate our transformation and become a more agile company in a world where consumer habits have changed definitively," said Steve Rowe, the group's CEO, quoted by France Press.

The brand faces difficulties especially in the clothing and household products business, whose turnover fell 29.9% over the same period. As a measure for the near future, Marks and Spencer intends to adapt to the new consumer habits, which have accelerated with the pandemic, and will focus on online sales, which have increased 39.2%, particularly due to the investments made in increasing distribution capacity.

M&S will start selling food online starting in September, having expressed confidence in the partnership made with the distributor Ocado.