Burberry warns staff their jobs will not be safe if they work at a certain time of day amidst job cuts
BURBERRY has pinned its revival on 'timeless British luxury', while telling staff their jobs will not be safe if they work at a certain time of day.
The fashion house yesterday said it would be culling 1,700 jobs as part of a radical cost-cutting strategy in the face of losses and slumping sales.
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The job cuts, equivalent to a fifth of its entire workforce, will fall on head office staff and cutting back on the shifts at its retail stores depending on peak hours.
Bosses admitted that the firm would also be culling its entire night shift workforce at its Castleford factory in West Yorks.
Around 150 workers there will lose their jobs, despite Burberry announcing a tie-up with King Charles' Highgrove estate to make £2,490 limited edition trench coats.
CEO Joshua Schulman, who was sent in to Burberry ten months ago to spearhead a turnaround, yesterday said the changes were needed 'to maintain the long-term viability of UK manufacturing'.
He added: 'We want to reiterate our commitment to making trench coats here in the UK.'
Mr Schulman has recently launched his turnaround based on Burberry's heritage products.
But he has also tried to make the brand more accessible with cheaper items, such as £450 bikinis as modelled by Rosie Huntington- Whiteley and £320 bucket hats, as worn by tennis star Jack Draper.
Burberry said it wanted to cut costs by £100million after swinging to a £66million loss in the year to April.
A year earlier it had profits of £383million.
Shares in Burberry still rose 8.93 per cent to 900.63p yesterday as investors welcomed the cost-cutting.
'My bargain of the day' cries shopper after finding 'adorable' Burberry skirt in charity shop for £6
The brand has been battered by a slowdown in consumer spending in China, nervousness in the US and an ill-fated move into streetwear fashions, which alienated its discerning wealthy shoppers.
Burberry, which used to rely on China for 40 per cent of its sales, said they fell by 16 per cent in Asia Pacific, while in America they were down by 9 per cent and in Europe they fell by 8 per cent.
The firm also repeated its call for the UK Government to scrap the so-called tourist tax, which it says has made Britain a less attractive shopping destination in relation to its European peers.
Mr Schulman said: 'We would love the UK to be an attractive destination. The withdrawal of UK tax-free shopping heaped additional pressure on the UK and we would welcome the repeal of that.'
Co-op to recover
THE CO-OP yesterday said its shops will be back to normal by the weekend — two weeks after it was hit by a cyber attack.
Pictures of empty shelves have circulated on social media after the food retailer's deliveries were disrupted and its IT systems went down.
Co-op — targeted by the same gang as Marks & Spencer — now insists that it is in the 'recovery phase'.
Two weeks ago, it revealed hackers had accessed its data.
Merger delivers a threat
A NEWLY privatised Royal Mail faces more pressure from rivals after delivery firm Evri struck a merger with DHL, and locker business InPost announced a jump in revenues.
Evri, which rebranded three years ago from Hermes to improve its reputation, is to become a logistics giant in the UK after the deal with DHL.
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The tie-up will create a new firm delivering two billion parcels and letters a year.
DHL has a smaller presence in the UK but will take a minority stake in Evri, which is owned by equity firm Apollo.
Separately, InPost reported a 39 per cent rise in parcel volumes while revenues rose by a fifth to £585million.
InPost, which recently bought Yodel, has 16,000 lockers across the UK and has benefited from Brits using it to buy and sell via platforms such as Vinted, as well as retailers.
Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, who sealed his £3.6billion takeover of Royal Mail last month, has said he wants to roll-out InPost-style lockers to his new purchase.
Direct to probe
AVIVA's £3.7billion takeover of rival insurer Direct Line has been referred for a probe by the competition authority.
The insurer announced its takeover in December and received approval from shareholders in March.
But it has taken until now for the Competition and Markets Authority to open its 'Phase One' investigation — looking at whether it will result in a 'substantial lessening' of competition.
It comes as the Government says it wants the regulator to 'drive investor confidence and support economic growth'.
Pawn is taken
PAWNBROKER H&T Group is the latest British firm to be snapped up by an overseas rival, after agreeing to a £297million takeover.
Shares soared yesterday by 40 per cent to 644p after it revealed US suitor First Cash made its first approach in December and made three more offers before a fourth cash proposal at 661p-a-share.
H&T, which has 285 shops across the UK, has recently toasted a boom in revenues on the back of record-high gold prices as squeezed Brits cash in their jewellery.
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