Arcadia has announced today that it plans to furlough all store employees and the majority of its head office staff.

Sofie Willmott, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view on this news:

“Arcadia’s plan to furlough the large majority of its workforce does not bode well for other retail employees with many other clothing & footwear players now likely to follow suit. With clothing & footwear spend dropping off a cliff, despite many websites continuing to operate, retailers are cutting costs where they can to protect their long-term futures.

“Understandably there is no work for store staff while non-essential physical locations remain closed and head office employees will have little to do other than manage the cancellation of orders and attempt to drive online sales. Future range planning will be difficult without an end to the strain on discretionary spend in sight and retailers will not want to commit to future inventory when sales are not coming through. This is likely to significantly hit future product drops and retailers will now need to carefully phase their intake and newness to try and provide shoppers with a cohesive range, ready for when they want to buy again.”