Tesco Direct to close, M &S to close 100 stores risking thousands of jobs
Tesco Direct to close 500 jobs at risk of redundancy. A statement blamed high costs and marketing for stunting the website’s progress and confirmed the “non-food website” will close in July 2018.
Tesco said it will close the Direct site on 9th July 2018 and the Fenny Lock distribution centre in Milton Keynes in late August. Tesco grocery-focused site is used by an average of 100, 000 customers a day.
Charles Wilson, CEO of Tesco UK & ROI said: “ We want to offer our customers the ability to buy groceries and non-food products in one place and that’s why we are focusing our investment into one online platform. The decision has been very difficult one to make but it is an essential step towards establishing a more sustainable non-food offer and growing our business for the future.”
Marks & Spencer also announced that it is to close over 100 stores putting thousands of jobs at risk.
Marks and Spencer plan to accelerate its store closure programme after discovering that a high proportion of its customers tend to shop at alternative branches rather than abandon the brand totally when their local stores shut. Over one hundred stores are to close by 2022, from an earlier figure of 60. The group has already shut 21 stores and will open 15 fewer simply food stores this year. The stores being closed are a mixture of freehold and leasehold as M&S is able to close stores more easily than rivals because of the high proportion of freeholds stocks in its estate.
Stockton, Northampton, Darlington, Walsall and Newmarket are among the towns to lose an M&S.
M&S Annual pre-tax profits fell by almost two-thirds to £66.8m as sales of food, clothing and homeware all declined. The expense of closing 100 stores and revamping the business cost M&S £321m. Steve Rowe, CEO said, “ This modernisation programme is to close some of the small stores where we can’t give the full offer, and show customers in our better stores, our bigger stores the full range of what M&S does and we give our customers the stores that they deserve”.