A LEGENDARY fashion label, with 71 stores in the UK, has axed 200 British jobs.
The job losses come despite the fact that the iconic brand had an uptick in profit and sales over the last year.
Levi’s has 71 stores in the UK[/caption]
American fashion brand Levi’s, which launched back in 1853, reduced the number of its staff in its Northampton office from 1,857 to 1,630 over the year to November 30, 2024.
However, pre-tax profit during this period grew from £7.7m to £9.5m and sales rose from £89m to £96.8m.
“Service levels have improved and confidence from customers and consumers in our ability to be a reliable partner should increase further in 2025”, a statement endorsed by the board said.
“Traffic has been flattish overall or even in decline during the current year and a consistent trend of bargain hunting is still directing price-sensitive consumers more to outlets rather than mainline stores.”
“The outlet business is however a highly professionalised and profitable business model for us and hence bears more opportunities than risks.”
“While consumers are still attracted by special offers and the ability to swiftly compare prices across platforms, our new brand ambassador Beyonce, with whom we launched a global marketing campaign in 2024 to last for 12 months, is expected to boost brand awareness and should allow us to reduce promotional activities both on and offline.”
Levi’s revealed that its five-year plan will focus on expanding it’s women swear and tops ranges.
The fashion label will also invest additional money in premium denim products and flexible production.
More retail job losses
This comes as Morrisons cut 3600 jobs as it shut 17 stores in a huge shake-up to its operations.
The supermarket reduced its workforce from 104,819 to 101,144 for the year ending October 27 2024.
Thousands of roles were cut in Morrisons stores and its head office, as well as from its manufacturing and distribution operations.
Its store staff numbers fell from 88,258 to 85,508 and manufacturing roles dropped from 7,865 to 7,612 during its last financial year.
Meanwhile, distribution staff declined from 5,783 to 5,424, and head office employees shrank from 2,913 to 2,600.
The supermarket also cut more than 8,800 roles in 2023.
Why are retailers closing stores?
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024.
End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker.
It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date.
This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023.
It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns.
The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker.
Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations.
Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes.
Professor Bamfield has warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”
Plus, a major car dealer giant with over 100 UK sites has made hundreds of job cuts – and blamed them on Rachel Reeves‘ recent budget.
Group 1 Automotive UK said it wanted to “streamline” operations by cutting costs and axing duplicate roles.
soaring 94% – boosted by a stronger sales mix and improved aftersales operations, according to Car Dealer Magazine.
New car sales shot up 90% to 32,960 units, while used vehicle sales rose 89.5% to 41,580 units.
Group 1’s revenues skyrocketed from £1.18bn to £2.3bn in the first half of the year – with gross profit jumping 109.6% to a whopping £313m.
The company also reported its UK gross margin improved from 12.6% to 13.6%.