Marks & Spencer (M&S), a renowned British retail company, has recently announced that it is planning to cut 7,000 jobs to mitigate heavy losses incurred due to the COVID-19 crisis. The announcement comes as a big blow for Britain’s already declining retail sector.

According to a statement, M&S said that the market is steadily witnessing a material shift in trade, with predicting new sales being difficult as the world emerges from a post-COVID-19 era. As a result, M&S is preparing itself to adapt to this change.

Reportedly, home trading and clothing in its stores has been stagnant since last year, but home and online delivery have shown strong growth during the same time. As of now, M&S has a UK workforce of nearly 78,000 people.

The retail company has acknowledged that the crisis has shed new light on its ability to work more productively and flexibly with several employees switching and multi-tasking between its clothing and food divisions.

Earlier in July, M&S had cut 950 store management jobs. The latest job cut would affect its regional management, UK stores and headquarters. These cuts follow a trail of thousands of other job losses that were announced by other key British retailers like John Lewis, Boots, WH Smith and Dixons Carphone.

Speaking on the move, Steve Rowe, CEO, Marks & Spencer, said that these proposals are essential for becoming a faster and leaner business set up that can effectively serve evolving customer needs.

Marks & Spencer has also devised a new approach for its food brand where it is promoting its ‘everyday prices’ of groceries to stand out from its rivals. This initiative is a part of its transformation strategy.

Evidently, M&S will be launching its “remarksable” program where it will showcase 240 of its grocery staples at everyday prices. This would transform the company’s image and convince customers to consider its stores for regular grocery needs.

Source Credit: https://in.reuters.com/article/m-s-redundancies/britains-ms-to-cut-7000-jobs-in-latest-blow-to-retail-sector-idINKCN25E0XW