A new shock to the market – a well-known clothing company has put a “lock”

Clothing company Boohoo has announced it has bought Debenhams for £55m, but has made clear it will not take over any of its 118 stores or workforce. This means immediate closure and layoffs for 12,000 people.

Boohoo says this is a big step, but the deal means the loss of 12,000 jobs and its network of stores.

The 242-year-old Debenhams chain is already in the process of shutting down after its executives failed to secure a rescue deal for the company.

Sales of its products started at cost due to the closure in Debenhams stores while company officials tried to look for offers to save the business or part of it.

Debenhams stores will close permanently after Boho deal. Boohoo, which was founded in 2006, already has a market capitalization of £4.4 billion.

Debenhams has been struggling to survive for years, however, and coronavirus has ultimately brought its downfall.

The company had already cut stores and laid off 6,500 people since May as it tried to stay afloat.

Business: The closure that shocked the Greek market

Notos Com’s withdrawal from the retail business in the home equipment industry is met by the company’s decision not to renew the Notos Home lease at Golden Hall.

The store in the popular shopping center in Maroussi is expected to close in the near future and will be the second Notos Home to close after Notos Home in Kotzia Square, which closed two years ago.

It should be noted that in Greece Notos Com maintains a network of Notos Com stores in Athens, Thessaloniki, Piraeus and Kalamata.

When in January 2019 he decided to close the notoshome in Kotzia Square, he caused a sensation because it was an investment he made in 2002 with Claudatos, as part of a plan to reorganize the historic Lambroboulos chain.

Notos Home has been in the Golden Hall since 2008, while a new large retailer is expected to enter the space vacated by its exit.

Notos Com maintains a presence in the shopping center with stores such as Gant, Lacoste, Trussardi and La Martina.

Also in the company’s vision is to develop the concept of notoshome through in-store shopping within its stores, as is the case with the store in Omonia and Thessaloniki.

With the exception of the “red” regions of the country, shops began their work by welcoming their customers.

In the “red zones” stores operate in a click-away fashion.

Reopening the market is a gamble for the government, as adherence to the procedures and the epidemiological burden that ensues from opening commercial establishments will determine the next steps in easing restrictions, and for shops that are called upon to provide their sales by means of bold discounts and getting rid of goods that were not available in the previous period.

It is stated that the movement for reopening activities (excluding visits to hairdressers, personal hygiene services, waxing, UV and infrared treatments, manicures, pedicures and pedicures, etc.), has a time validity of 2 hours, with the time point starting at The time indicated in the confirmation of the transaction or at the time of its issuance via the message.

In order to ensure a “safe” reopening of the market, the Greek police presence will be strong on all commercial streets, according to Citizens Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis.

As he explained, ELAS will monitor the market in order to avoid the worst.

It should be noted that the infectious-pathologist, Professor of Pathology at the Medical Department of the University of Patras Charalambos Gogos argued earlier that the two-hour market should be strictly observed, adding that monitoring is necessary to ensure this.

“It should only be two hours. We want an app (on mobile phones) for two hours, but there are difficulties with personal data.” He said. “There should be intense monitoring in the corridors in the common areas, as things can be more difficult,” warned Mr. Gogos.

And he added that if we go through the stage with simple, strict protection measures, “from here on, things will be difficult because of the weather,” estimating that starting from February, the focus may begin if things continue as they are.

For his part, the Deputy Minister of Development and Investment, Nikos Papathanasis, said that it is not possible to enter a “categorical” in text messages for navigation so that citizens can make their purchases because the government respects the personal data of citizens, through text messages.

selling by pieces: The opening of retail has also led to a (predictable) increase in cases, as the country’s largest department stores have diversified their methods of operation. See on xristika.gr what … the perfect storm of retail has brought to the largest stores.

The increase in cases and the “redness” of areas such as Attica, finally led the commission to recommend restrictions on the operation of retail trade and the resurgence of “clicks” in the markets, it reported Capital.

So until next Monday, February 8, retail, in the 13 “red” zones – Chalkidiki, Lasithi and Zakynthos were added to the list yesterday – will operate in a click-away manner (remote ordering and collection in the store), while clothing can operate And shoes, bookstores, hairdressers and personal care stores by appointment (click inside) and with 1 person per 25 square meters.

The prospect of the Inditex network operating in Greece with many stores and brands, such as ZARA, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius and Oysho, has decided not to play sports.

As far as Jumbo is concerned, it opened its stores on Saturday normally, taking advantage of the opportunity given to retail companies to operate in the “red zones” with clothing, shoes and stationery stores, and running them with a click inside the form, at the end of the day, perhaps finding that z in the cash register Cash does not cover operating costs. It has therefore decided that its stores in Attica, Chalkida and Patras will remain closed from the first Monday of February.

However, the chain has finally decided to go live as of tomorrow Tuesday, both through a click-away model and a click-through within the system. The reason, according to what its executives claimed this morning, was that there was an explanatory circular that forced it to “move” to cooperation and waive its rights while suspending work. However, other sources in the company claim that the decision to open came after contacts with its legal advisors and officials from the Ministries of Labor and Development. “Since you are not closing by state order, you cannot have provisions for businesses that close by state order,” said the same sources.

As reported by Jumbo executives this morning, the Explanatory Circular stipulates that any company that has clothing, shoes, stationery, and does not open even if these activities are secondary KAD, it automatically means that it is excluded from the beneficial measures to suspend business. and included in the cooperation programme. Therefore, we should not exclude the possibility that chains that have not opened in the “red” areas will be forced to “comply” with the new KYA, that is, to work with click in shop and click inside, as Jumbo will do.

However, sources from the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Development stated that there is no relevant explanatory circular.

In a store for example an area of ​​1,000 square metres. Up to 40 consumers can be inside it at the same time, or 420-520 if we accept that each of them stay inside for an hour and the store exhausts the possibility that KYA has given him to work every day until 13 hours in Attica, that is, from 7 am to 8 pm , or 10.5 hours in the rest of the “red” zones, that is, from 7 am to 5:30 pm.

Retail: Inditex Case and H&M

But let’s go back to the case of Inditex. The initial decision of the country’s largest active retailer, Spanish group Inditex, which based on 2019 data had a turnover of 550 million euros in Greece, had a network of 165 stores – there are now 163 – with 3,956 employees who were employed, is worrying.

This is because the Inditex Group has announced, since last June, that it intends to close 1,200 stores worldwide, expand the best performing stores and invest in the Internet so that by 2022, 25% of its annual turnover comes from online sales.

By the end of last October, it had closed 289, reducing its number to 7,197. Until now, it is not known whether this decision, i.e. closing stores, will affect his activity in Greece, where entire shopping streets bear his name, while his imprint In the country’s shopping centers is far from trivial.

In addition to Inditex, there are other large local and non-local groups looking for the most appropriate solution for how they will operate in the short term and what plan they will follow in the long term.

And, of course, there are several thousand small and medium-sized retail companies that, according to representatives of their corporate bodies, are on the verge of growth. According to the President of the Athens Chamber of Commerce, Stavros Kavounis, 1 in 2 trading firms are at risk if courageous support measures, including “debt-cutting,” are not implemented. Many of these companies are unable to meet the obligations they have accumulated, as the turnover of the previous months, even during the holiday season when stores were open on some days of the previous fortnight, is less than 50%, according to market managers.

But even large chains and well-known brands, such as the Swedish H&M, have received and continue to receive strong pressure. The chain, which had 35 stores in Greece last year, lost 1/4 of its sales compared to 2019, while losses widened in the last quarter of the fiscal year (September-November). According to what the Swedish group announced on January 29, its sales in Greece between September and November fell by 30%, while the group-wide decline was only 10%.

selling by pieces: 180 degree rotation from Zara

Finally, the Inditex group (ZARA, Pull & Bear, etc.) made a 180-degree turn and finally decided to launch its network in the “red” areas with a click inside the model.

The decision was made earlier Monday afternoon during a conference call held by the subsidiary’s executives in Greece with the headquarters in Spain.

Inditex sources told Capital.gr that the reason why the group’s stores in the “red” zones did not work last Saturday and this Monday was due to the fact that they did not have time to adapt to new data in such a short period of time – the newspaper reported on Saturday evening.

However, other sources claim that both Inditex Group and Jumbo were “forced” to open their stores or they would be excluded from the support measures.