Next boss Wolfson predicts large-scale retail job losses
By Sean Farrell
Date: Friday 25 Sep 2020
(Sharecast News) - Next boss Simon Wolfson said many thousands of retail jobs would not survive the long-term effects of the Covid-19 crisis, the BBC reported.
Wolfson said many jobs in retail would become unsustainable because the Covid-19 lockdown has accelerated the shift towards online shopping.
"I think that is right, yes, and I wouldn't want to underestimate the difficulty that is going to cause a lot of people who work in retail," Wolfson said when asked if a permanent shift online had made many retail jobs unviable. "I think it's going to be very uncomfortable for a lot of people," he said.
Wolfson said Next had already cut jobs in its stores and would continue to do so for five or six years as demand for physical retail reduces. He said new jobs would be created in warehouses, call centres and other parts of the business. Almost 125,000 retail jobs have been lost in 2020 as Boots, Marks & Spencer and John Lewis have cut thousands of roles.
Wolfson has a reputation as one of the sharpest brains and clearest communicators in retail. Next recently raised its profit guidance for the second time this year as sales recovered from the Covid-19 lockdown that closed its stores for more than two months.
Wolfson said Next had less than 10% of its workers on the government's furlough programme, which finishes at the end of October. He said as Christmas approaches Next would have enough work to bring everyone back from furlough without redundancies but he said others would struggle.
The Next chief executive, who is a Conservative peer, said he approved of Chancellor Rishi Sunak's revised job support scheme, announced on Tuesday. Wolfson said it was right that employers should contribute more and employees should get less "otherwise I think there's a risk that our economy will just become hooked on it".
Wolfson called on the government to change business rates to reflect shists in the economy by charging more for warehouses that serve online retailers and less for shops. He added that retailers should pay commercial landlords agreed rents but renegotiate terms when leases are renewed.
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