More jobs are under threat at Wolverhampton’s Beatties store, where shocked staff have been warned to expect redundancies.
Staff have been issued with letters warning a review of the city store’s operations is now under way.
House of Fraser insists the impending cuts in the store’s stock handling, operations administration and maintenance departments will be “minimal”.
But bosses were today accused of tearing the store apart “piece by piece”.
House of Fraser has not revealed how many jobs are on the line but says a consultation process has now been launched.
“House of Fraser is entering into a formal period of consultation with staff affected,” said a store spokeswoman.
She added that no decisions had been made but that bosses would be looking at offering workers jobs at other stores. The announcement is a devastating blow for the city’s historic store.
Its book department has closed, the traditional cafe waitress service is soon set to be scrapped, customer services is set to be stripped and the store’s toy concession is also being shut down.
A source close to the store said: “I am just not shocked by anything they do any more.They are just taking it apart piece by piece.
“The staff morale has been low for a long time.”
In 2005 Beatties was taken over by House of Fraser, which was in turn bought by a consortium led by Icelandic High Street group Baugur in a £351 million deal.
Wolverhampton South West MP Rob Marris said: “I think this is really sad news.”
7 Comments
Please rearrange these word appropriately.
heritage, financial managers, at, Idiotic, House of Fraser, and, asset-stripping, our, incompetent, are, greedy.
Thank you! What a surprise!
What are House of Fraser up to ?. All we ever seem to see in the press about them is bad news. Toy department to close, table service to end, dropping of historical name, job losses and so on and so on. As i wait for my bus outside of the place i look at it and think “Doomed”.
I like to think that anywhere i spend my money will still be there tomorrow but with Beaties i am starting to think that they won’t be.
Once the Summer Row development is completed they will need to offer something above the run of the mill service that they are heading for. They will need to stand out above all of the “names” that will be coming to the city. However, alas it looks like they are gearing down to be just another chain store without standards, and as tacky as the man that owns the place.
If you don’t believe me then take a look at what has happened in Birmingham. A once exclusive Rackhams that oozed quality had nothing to fear from it’s neighbour C&A, who offered half decent products at a half decent price. Once H of F moved in and dropped it’s standards C&A became competition, so what did H of F do, they bought C&A and closed it. Now Corporation St is the poor cousin to the Bullring with nothing but chavvy shops or “to Let” signs.
If Beaties are to survive then they need to up their game and stand out, be worth that extra few paces from Summer Row.
Otherwise they are doomed.
Gee,I wonder why stores are empty, they must be selling stuff online DUH.
Wake up Wolverhampton !!
From Reuters news Jan 23/08
House of Fraser has ambitious goals for continued growth, fueled by the web. The company aims to grow £100m through the
eCommerce channel by 2009. Recently, during a multi-channel holiday promotion week, the House of Fraser site exceeded order expectations, handling end-user
traffic ten-fold above the holiday season averages.
yeah german wolf thats right…. less people using the store, so jobs have to be cut. The local people moan for a week then move on to something else.
A big store in my local town closed last week, I heard one old woman say “what a shame, it’s only been open for a year, I haven’t been in there yet”. I wonder why stores are closing/cutting jobs/moving out of town. Let’s all blame execs, huh.
these people are running a business,unfortunatley it is a dog eat dog world now and no-one can tell me they would not do the same. if you don’t like it vote with your feet, as far as i am concerned house of fraser and m&s are the only decent stores in town, long may they stay at any cost
Asset strippers!
Once wolverhampton has lost eveything of value, it’s heritage, identity and uniqueness… then what?
Wolverhampton South West MP Rob Marris said: “I think this is really sad news.”
Well then DO SOMETHING mr.MP!