Harrods to Cut Nearly 700 Jobs Amid Pandemic Induced Sales Slowdown

The British luxury retailer plans to lay-off of nearly 700 workers after being hit hard by the pandemic crisis.

Harrods said on Tuesday that they expecting to lay off 14% of their total 4,800 employees.

CEO Michael Ward announced on Tuesday ,“the necessary social distancing requirements to protect employees and customers is having a huge impact on our ability to trade, while the devastation in international travel has meant we have lost key customers coming to our store and frontline operations.”

Like other unessential goods retailers, Harrods had to close its entryways in mid-March as the coronavirus pandemic started to ramp up in the United Kingdom. The retailer's leader in London's Knightsbridge was shut for about a quarter of a year.

With an end goal to shed overabundance stock, Harrods in late May reported designs to open its first outlet store in Westfield London. Harrods likewise said the outlet would ease the heat off the Knightsbridge lead, which revived with critical social separating measures in what is generally a bustling deals season for the retailer.

Harrods management announced on Tuesday, “Harrods Outlet allows the business to adapt to changed circumstances and grow in undoubtedly challenging times for the economy. The concept store has been designed to support higher levels of social distancing by allowing more space for customers, enabling a wider product selection of new-season product in the Knightsbridge store, as well as supporting the business in retailing existing stock in a responsible and sustainable way.”

Overall, the British fashion economy has been struck hard by the pandemic, with fast-fashion labels Oasis and Warehouse just as retail chain Debenhams falling into organization during the pandemic. Like Harrods, London-based mark Mulberry settled on the choice the previous evening to cut a part of its staff, reporting it would shed around 25% of its workforce.

In May, the Office for National Statistics reported that the U. K’s. total national output shrank by 2% in the initial three months of the year, denoting the biggest decay since the 2008 money related emergency. In March alone, the economy fell by a record 5.8% — the greatest month to month drop since record-keeping started — as the pandemic constrained the legislature to force severe lockdown measures.