M and S cutting 7000 jobs

xxlshirts_fit_all

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M&S said it was "too early to predict with precision where a new post-Covid sales mix will settle. We must now act to reflect this change".
But the retailer said operating during the pandemic had showed it could work "more flexibly and productively", with more staff multi-tasking and moving between food, clothing and home departments.

So basically they want fewer workers to be more productive by reducing excess capacity... I think we will see more of this in the next few months...
 
Never been a more perfect time for major brands to "streamline" into a "new way of working" and sliding every ounce of responsibility towards Covid-19. M&S were struggling long before lockdown. I have friends and family members who have been there 30 years and I'm told 20 of those years, jobs have always been at risk.

People don't want cashmere jumpers and £7.00 microwave meals. Simple as that. If there is any longevity in M&S then they need to adapt, and quick. I would suggest a middle aisle full of tat and easy-buys...
 
Their hook up with Ocado will completely change the business. It's a shame about the clothing side because they actually do have some excellent gear, it's just that the people it's aimed at don't know it's there.
The missus has been there 11 years ... a succession of idiotic CEOs have fecked the business up.
 
My M&S Food Hall has 5 self service tills and usually 1 attended till open and 3 attended tills normally closed. There are usually 2 staff members watching the shoppers use the self service tills and keeping a eye on the other till. Thee are often 2 shelf fillers/price changers and someone on bakery. They have invested in a lot is self service technology, but still have staff floating looking for problems etc. In Lidl there are often only 3 staff in total on duty 4 when it is very busy. Certainly more staff than Lidl and much more technology. I personally would prefer them to be like Lidl service wise and cut their prices by 10%.
 
Never been a more perfect time for major brands to "streamline" into a "new way of working" and sliding every ounce of responsibility towards Covid-19. M&S were struggling long before lockdown. I have friends and family members who have been there 30 years and I'm told 20 of those years, jobs have always been at risk.

People don't want cashmere jumpers and £7.00 microwave meals. Simple as that. If there is any longevity in M&S then they need to adapt, and quick. I would suggest a middle aisle full of tat and easy-buys...

Any £7 meal is unlikely to be microwave and would be family sized I’d imagine? They do 3 for £10 on many things like that and a lot of their food is competitively priced for the quality of it, especially as they tend to use organic & ethical ingredients. They’re not competitive on brand food or products like bread or milk, and frozen items usually aren’t, but for things like bbq food, ready meals, stir fry, 3 course meal deals etc they’re very competitive and quality is often far better than supermarkets. Aldi and lidl regularly ape their offerings which are ok for the price but never as good quality.

their low calorie meals are very good quality and at 3 for a tenner blow the absolute crap you’d get from Tesco or any of the discounters out of the water on ingredient quality. I’d not buy bananas there, or detergent, but most of what they sell, sells well and is good
 
Worked for M and S as a student in the food section and was told repeatedly then the food department was propping up the rest of the store.
No surprise Covid has swung this further, wouldn’t be surprise to see some of their stores become food only.
 
Any £7 meal is unlikely to be microwave and would be family sized I’d imagine? They do 3 for £10 on many things like that and a lot of their food is competitively priced for the quality of it, especially as they tend to use organic & ethical ingredients. They’re not competitive on brand food or products like bread or milk, and frozen items usually aren’t, but for things like bbq food, ready meals, stir fry, 3 course meal deals etc they’re very competitive and quality is often far better than supermarkets. Aldi and lidl regularly ape their offerings which are ok for the price but never as good quality.

their low calorie meals are very good quality and at 3 for a tenner blow the absolute crap you’d get from Tesco or any of the discounters out of the water on ingredient quality. I’d not buy bananas there, or detergent, but most of what they sell, sells well and is good

Agreed fair, I’m never going to do my full weekly shop at M&S but when it comes to meat and nice to haves such as bakery items they are a league above any of the of the supermarkets. Some decent wines in there too.
 
Over 100 BA engineers at Heathrow and Gatwick got phone calls today, in some cases it was just a voicemail or even a email to say they had been made redundant. I never got a call but some of my friends and colleagues did, over 1/3 of my shift have been let go. It’s heartbreaking and still no transparency with regards to selection criteria. This has been going on for 5 months and has been the most stressful period of my life. I’ve been made redundant before and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. This is after 350 guys took VR and we negotiated a 5% pay cut for 2 years.
 
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Over 100 BA engineers at Heathrow and Gatwick got phone calls today, in some cases it was just a voicemail or even a email to say they had been made redundant. I never got a call but some of my friends and colleagues did, over 1/3 of my shift have been let go. It’s heartbreaking and still no transparency with regards to selection criteria. This has been going on for 5 months and has been the most stressful period of my life. I’ve been made redundant before and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. This is after 350 guys took VR and we negotiated a 5% pay cut for 2 years.

been through it twice to completion, and under threat of it probably 6 times, but confirmed safe the rest. it’s an awful feeling. I remember getting confirmed safe at a Npower the day we got our mortgage approved
 
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The finish quality on the clothes has deteriorated so I buy fewer casual clothes from them. Formal clothes are bought less which has affected them. I always had 2 M&S suits and about 6 of their work shirts and ties. I still buy trousers and underwear from them, but I am over 50!

I used to like to support British manufacturers. but M&S stopped using them from around 1993. Strange how M&S said it was because it was a lot cheaper to buy overseas, but their prices have not really come down to match.
 
Over 100 BA engineers at Heathrow and Gatwick got phone calls today, in some cases it was just a voicemail or even a email to say they had been made redundant. I never got a call but some of my friends and colleagues did, over 1/3 of my shift have been let go. It’s heartbreaking and still no transparency with regards to selection criteria. This has been going on for 5 months and has been the most stressful period of my life. I’ve been made redundant before and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. This is after 350 guys took VR and we negotiated a 5% pay cut for 2 years.

My mate works in civvy maintenance at Brize and they're struggling to fill roles if you anyone who is looking.
 
Thank you. I will pass on the info about Brize to my mates. I’ve been made redundant before and it’s horrific but at least I knew straight away. This has dragged on for 5 months, part of that is the unions fault but its been all consuming worry all day, every day for 5 months. I’m heartbroken for some of my mates, some of them are brilliant engineers. The selection process makes no sense, they’ve let go some of the more experienced guys and kept some of the dead wood. Supposedly they outsourced the selection process to a HR company, maybe length of service or sickness saved me, I’ve only had 10 days in 8 years and most of that was when I broke my ankle. I’m also more qualified and trained up than most my area. There is work out there, a couple of my mates knew the writing was on the wall, got engineering jobs in other industries and took VR. There will be hundreds more to go at Gatwick when they shut the hangar. We will be so understaffed once the schedule picks back up as we had already lost 350 blokes to VR.
 
People don't want cashmere jumpers and £7.00 microwave meals. Simple as that. If there is any longevity in M&S then they need to adapt, and quick. I would suggest a middle aisle full of tat and easy-buys...

Their foods business is pretty healthy, as I believe they stated in the announcement, and therefore it seems plenty of people want these "£7 microwave meals".
 
While I'm on it. Massive recommendation if you are a fan of granola but don't like it being full of sugar ... or you can't eat oats. The M&S luxury grain free granola if feckin brilliant. Have it every morning with Greek yoghurt and a bit of honey. Never going back to bog standard granola.
 
What they need to do is put their ready meals in proper fancy packaging and charge best part of a tenner for it. You could put any old ***** in it, horsemeat, dead cats, wood shavings and people will still eat it, as long as it's in a fancy box.
 
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