Littlewoods to slash 3,200 jobs

[Zooropa]

Littlewoods said on Sunday it would close most of its Index chain of catalogue retail stores and sell the rest, leaving about 3,200 employees without jobs.

Catalogue-store group Argos, owned by Gus Plc, will buy 33 of the 66 standalone Index stores for 44 million pounds, and take on the 800 employees of those stores.

The remaining 33 standalone stores will be sold and closed over the next six months, along with the 93 Index stores that are located inside Littlewoods outlets.

"Index has made a loss in nearly every year of its 20 year history, and has accumulated losses of over 100 million pounds despite many attempts by different management teams to turn the business around," Littlewoods Chairman David Simons said.

Littlewoods is owned by entrepreneurial twin brothers David and Frederick Barclay, who also own the Ritz Hotel and the Telegraph newspaper group.

 

[TheDogsNutts]

more peeps for the dole..............
hope they get new job's soon............

 

[meeza]

index employee here. been working in the index store for over 3 years now. its not so bad for me as im still a student and i only work weekends. my heart goes out to all those losing their jobs. it wont be easy trying to find another job especially if you have no other qualificatios or skills.
the closure of index came as a bit of a shock to me. i was working yesterday and no one mentioned anything. normally the managers warn you in advance that their is a risk of losing your job but not in this case. we knew that we was no making any profit but we didnt know the barclay bro's would close uo down.
the one i work in is located in littlewoods so i guess we will be closing down.
by the way does any on know if you get a redundancy payment if you are a weekend worker?