John Lewis today confirmed all eight retail web pages announced in July as at-risk of closure will now never ever reopen.
The closures include John Lewis’s Grand Central office retailer in the coronary heart of Birmingham, which has been shut because lockdown.
The retailer said the impacted retailers experienced currently been monetarily challenged prior to the pandemic and that the change toward on the net purchasing in the course of coronavirus meant the outlets would not be commercially viable in the potential.
The organization explained it would get the job done with staff to uncover new roles the place doable.
In a statement, John Lewis stated: “This is a really unhappy situation and one particular we hardly ever considered was imaginable when we first opened these stores.
“Our expectation was that we would trade in these places for lots of years to arrive, but they have been financially challenged right before the pandemic and we have not been in a position to find a way that would enable us to transform that all-around.
“We are grateful to those who have expressed their assist since asserting the proposed closure very last thirty day period, and for the outstanding professionalism our companions have revealed – they stay our absolute precedence and will be thoroughly supported over the coming weeks.”
John Lewis’s Grand Central section retail outlet in the coronary heart of Birmingham is a unique blow.
West Midlands mayor Andy Road claimed: “A unfortunate piece of information that is to do with John Lewis in central Birmingham.
“We were contacted yesterday by them and they have certainly verified to their workers that the proposal to shut the central Birmingham shop has turn out to be a actuality and it will not now reopen.
“That is even with myself, (leader of Birmingham Metropolis Council) Ian Ward and (main executive of the West Midlands Advancement Enterprise) Neil Rami getting satisfied with them and put ahead what we believe were extremely viable possibilities which they have picked not to take.”
Street, a previous taking care of director of John Lewis, experienced been urging the chain to reverse what he termed the “dreadful mistake” of closing its Grand Central department, since the proposal was announced at the stop of July.
The merchants closing are Croydon, Watford, Heathrow Terminal Two, St Pancras International, Birmingham, Swindon, Tamworth and Newbury.
