Britain's M&S plans to cut 950 jobs in restructuring

[July 20, 2020]  LONDON (Reuters) - British clothing and food retailer Marks & Spencer <MKS.L> said on Monday it planned to cut 950 jobs as part of a restructuring, dealing a further blow to a sector that has already seen thousands of redundancies during the COVID-19 crisis.

M&S said it had started a consultation with its employee representative group and had set out its intention to first offer voluntary redundancy to affected workers across central support functions, central operations and property and store management.

The cuts form part of M&S's plan to move to a "leaner, faster retail management structure," it said.

Britain's retailers, already struggling with high rents, business taxes, tight margins and online competition, were particularly hammered by the coronavirus lockdown.

Earlier this month health and beauty chain Boots <WBA.O> announced 4,000 job cuts, while department store chain John Lewis said it would likely shed 1,300.

(Reporting by James Davey; editing by William James and Paul Sandle)

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