STAFF are said to be ‘devastated’ following news that M&S to close its Redditch store in the Kingfisher Centre in April.
Some had worked for the company in the town for more than 40 years.
A company spokesperson said staff were being spoken to individually but it was the intention that all 66 would be moved to nearby stores.
However she said where those stores were too far to travel to the company would look at redundancy options for staff.
Redditch is one of six stores nationwide which will close, the others are: Birkenhead on Merseyside, Bournemouth, Durham, Fforestfach in Swansea, and Putney in London.
The firm also listed eight other firms proposed for closure. These are: Andover, Basildon, Bridlington, Denton Outlet in Greater Manchester, Falmouth, Fareham, Keighley and Stockport.
In a statement Marks & Spencer said the closure was part of their programme to ‘modernise its UK store estate to better meet the changing needs of customers.’
Sacha Berendji, director of Retail at M&S said: “We’re committed to transforming M&S for our customers, colleagues and shareholders. Stores will always be an integral part of our customer experience, alongside M&S.com, but we have to ensure we have the right offer in the right locations.
“We believe these changes are vital for the future of M&S and we will continue to accelerate the programme, taking tough but necessary decisions, as we focus on making M&S special.”
Andy Barber, M&S head of region for the West Midlands, said: “Closing our store on Walford Walk in the Kingfisher Centre is not a decision we’ve taken lightly and I understand that some customers will be disappointed by the news.
“However, we’re committed to offering the best of M&S in the area and I’m pleased that our colleagues will be staying with us and moving to nearby stores.”
Nearby stores include Longbridge (which opened in 2015), Solihull and the recently opened Foodhall in Moseley.
Shopworkers’ trade union Usdaw has called on Marks and Spencer to immediately open up a dialogue with the union to ensure staff are properly represented.
David Gill, Usdaw National Officer said: “Staff in all M&S stores were extremely concerned about what the future holds when the company announced a wide-ranging store reorganisation in November 2016, that will affect around 100 shops over a five year period, involving 60 store closures.
“Today we’ve seen a further 14 announced, which is devastating news for the staff in those stores and the uncertainty continues for everyone else. This salami slicing approach to reorganising the business is extremely distressing for the staff.
“Usdaw has thousands of members working for Marks and Spencer and the staff now need, more than ever, the representation and support of an independent trade union. We again urge M&S management to abandon their long-held resistance to recognising Usdaw as the union to represent its staff.”
As well as Redditch, M&S has announced five other stores that will close by the end of April and eight that are proposed for closure.
M&S currently has 1,025 stores – 302 Clothing, Home and Food, 684 Food-only and 39 outlets.
