Selfridges Boss to cut head office and shop staff amid restructuring

Luxury department store, Selfridges, is set to 'resize and reshape' including making redundancies in its head office and retail stores to drive efficiency.

According to This is Money, Boss Andrew Keith told staff that some teams will be 'resized and reshaped' to ensure the retailer is 'fit for the future, aligned, and working in the most efficient way'.

Central Group and Signa Holding completed the purchase of Selfridges last August, following the initial announcement of a deal in December 2021, in a deal worth £4 billion.

Since then, the group has been reviewing its 'ways of working, from top to bottom' as part of its 121 Strategy. This plan of action is intended to 'unlock better ways of working and offer the potential to deliver long-term sustainable growth and profitability for [the] business'.

In October 2022, Selfridges released its financial results for the 52 weeks ending 29 January 2022, revealing a 28% increase in revenue to £653.4 million. The group's operating loss totalled £38.1 million, down from the previous year's loss of £136.9 million.

In the statement, Andrew Keith told staff: "A critical part of this is making sure we are fit for the future, aligned, and working in the most efficient way to achieve our 121 goals. We've been reviewing how Head Office including some small teams in retail who support our stores are organised to best deliver for our customers.

"To do this involves looking at our structures, our costs, our revenue lines, and our ways of working, from top to bottom. Regrettably, this is likely to mean some of our head office teams, including some small teams in retail who support our stores, will be resized and reshaped."

Employees are expecting to hear more about expected redundancies from its Executive Director for People, Maria Glasscock, today.

Responding to the news piece in This is Money, a Communications Officer at Selfridges today offered this:

"We are in the process of reviewing how best to structure our head office to best deliver for customers. We will work through the details of this with our teams through the consultation process. Please be aware that there is an inaccuracy in the This is Money article.

"Specifically, we’ve been reviewing how head office, including some small teams in retail who support our stores are organised to best deliver for our customers. Our store and restaurant team members are not part of this review."