M&S to cut 950 jobs after Covid-19 speeds up restructuring plans

Marks & Spencer is to axe 950 roles, it was confirmed on Monday, after the high street retailer accelerated its restructuring programme.

The retail bellwether said it would create a new retail management structure, which would remove role duplication, reduce management layers, improve accountability and free up retail teams “to focus more on the customer”.

The proposed changes will affect 950 positions, primarily in central support functions and in property and store management. Collective consultation has already begun.

Plans to overhaul the retailer, which was battling a sluggish performance prior to the pandemic, and return it to sustainable, profitable growth, were first outlined at the full-year results in May. Dubbed Never The Same Again, the restructuring plan was expected to be completed within three years. M&S said on Monday that it now wanted to make three years’ progress in just one.

Sacha Berendji, director of retail, operations and property, said that the proposals would make M&S “a stronger, leaner and more resilient business. Throughout the crisis, we have seen how we can work faster and more flexible by empowering store teams, and it’s essential that we embed that way of working.”

M&S join a growing list of high street names to overhaul their structure and cut jobs in the wake of the pandemic. Earlier this month, John Lewis said it would not reopen eight stores, putting up to 1,300 positions at risk, while Boots has confirmed 4,000 job losses and the closure of its 48 optician outlets.

M&S furloughed around 27,000 workers out of a total workforce of 78,000 after lockdown measures closed the majority of its retail estate. A number have since returned to work, but M&S warned at the full-year results that shopping habits had changed. It also revealed that clothing sales were down 84% year-on-year at the lowest point of the lockdown.

“The aftershocks of the crisis will endure for the next year and beyond and while some consumer habits will return to normal, others have been changed forever,” the retailer said on Monday.

As at 1300 BST, shares in M&S were down 1% at 97.97p. At the start of the year, the blue chip was trading above 215p.