John Lewis closes eight more stores putting 1,465 jobs at risk
24 March 2021, 11:21 | Updated: 24 March 2021, 19:19
High street giant John Lewis has announced the closure of eight more department stores, putting 1,465 jobs at risk.
The eight shops set to close comprise four At Home stores in Ashford, Basingstoke, Chester and Tunbridge Wells and four department stores in Aberdeen, Peterborough, Sheffield and York.
Last year the chain announced eight of their stores would be closing - meaning 16 are now facing their doors being permanently shut.
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In July John Lewis said the stores in Birmingham, Croydon, Watford, Newbury, Swindon and Tamworth, and the smaller hubs at St Pancras and Heathrow, would be closed with the loss of 1,300 jobs.
A statement from the company said: "We will enter into consultation with the 1,465 affected Partners about our proposals. Should we proceed, we will make every effort to find alternative roles in the Partnership for as many Partners as possible.
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"At the Partnership’s full year results earlier this month, we said that we will reshape our business in response to how our customers increasingly want to shop in-store and online.
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"This follows substantial research to identify and cater for new customer shopping habits in different parts of the country.
"As part of this, we can unfortunately no longer profitably sustain a large John Lewis store in some locations where we do not have enough customers, which is resulting in the proposed closures.
"The eight shops were financially challenged prior to the pandemic."
More to follow...
