M&Co cuts HQ jobs as e-tail grows

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 29, 2019

Scottish fashion retailer M&Co is cutting a number of jobs, mainly at its head office, with 59 posts set to go. While the overall amount is small, it’s just the latest in a series of UK fashion names cutting back on staff numbers.

Only last week a British Retail Consortium survey said that the number of employees in the retail sector fell by 2.2% in the key Christmas quarter last year, adding up to 70,000 jobs. And an Altus survey a few days earlier predicted 175,000 job losses for this year.

Many of the job cuts are being directly blamed on the growth of online shopping and family-controlled M&Co seemed to support that view. This week it said that most of the 59 roles it’s cutting will be at its headquarters in Inchinnan as it dives deeper into fashion e-tail.

"Having undertaken a detailed, strategic review of the business over recent months, an increased focus on our fast-growing e-commerce operation and further investment in IT are key priorities for us,” a company spokesperson said.

"We are a strong, robust and profitable business with over 3,000 employees and 269 stores nationwide, but we must reduce our central overhead costs to ensure we maintain and build upon that hard-won position."