WH Smith to slash 1,500 jobs
WH Smith is axing up to 1,500 jobs after demand collapsed at its branches in train stations, airports and city centres.
The firm is preparing to slash more than a tenth of its workforce in a desperate scramble to save money, after a previously successful bet on passing trade from commuters proved disastrous in the face of the pandemic.
In more bleak employment news, HS2 contractor Aecom is also poised to cut 500 jobs due to the crisis. It means that major companies have announced the potential lay-offs of more than 6,000 people so far this week.
WH Smith employs about 14,000 staff and has focused heavily on opening stores in transport hubs as a way of dodging the shift online which is hammering the high street.
It has grown this travel business aggressively, buying two firms in the US for almost half a billion pounds, and had been hailed as a rare retail success story before coronavirus forced millions of people to work from home and brought progress to a crashing halt.
The company said most job cuts will be in its travel stores, but some managers at high street branches will also be made redundant because it plans to simplify how shops are run.
Boss Carl Cowling said the recovery has been slow as shoppers are for the most part still staying at home.
He said: “I regret that this will have an impact on a significant number of colleagues whose roles will be affected by these necessary actions.”
WH Smith estimated that the redundancies could cost it up to £19m. It will shut 14 kiosks, but no other shops are earmarked for closure at present.
Just over half of the chain's UK travel shops have reopened, while all 575 high street stores are now trading.
The business, a City darling with a record of dishing out regular dividends, now expects to post a pre-tax loss of up to £75m for the year to the end of August.
Shares rose 4.6pc in morning trading but have more than halved this year.
Meanwhile Aecom - a key player on the Government's £78bn HS2 rail link between London and the North - is cutting staff in the UK and Ireland as part of cost-saving plans.
The redundancies were announced just two days after the sudden departure of chief executive David Barwell and chief operating officer Bill Quarterman.
