Shoppers Stop, an Indian department store chain, owned by the K Raheja Corp lays off more than 1,100 employees and closing some of the underperforming stores due to the Covid-19 pandemic and national lockdown.
The company has 7,500 employees, and nearly 15% of total staff strength, mostly junior and mid-level staff have been asked to resign by 15 June 2020. These include 160 people in the back-end operations and over 1,000 front end store-level employees.
A Shoppers Stop spokesperson confirmed layoff plans but did not disclose the number of employees being laid off and he said the company will re-hire from the same set of people once the situation begins to improve.
Like other retailers, we will be looking at closing lower-performing and unsustainable stores. With business declining, layoffs are unfortunately inevitable, the spokesperson said
The impacted employees will be given two months’ salary on an immediate basis, the spokesperson added.
Shoppers Stop spokesperson further said, “the retail industry has been going through its worst phase in these unprecedented and challenging times. We have been continuously exploring various combinations of cost reduction measures to ensure that the least number of people are impacted due to these unforeseen circumstances, and also keep in mind that business continuity is maintained.”
Shoppers Stop is home to a multitude of leading international and national brands for apparel, fragrances, accessories, cosmetics, footwear, home décor, and furnishings catering to the needs of the entire family.
Shoppers Stop is the nation’s leading premier retailer of fashion and beauty brands established in 1991. Spread across 89 department stores in over 42 Cities, the company also operates premium home concept stores (11 Stores), 135 Specialty Beauty stores of M.A.C, Estée Lauder, Bobbi Brown, Clinique, Smash box, Jo Malone and Arcelia, occupying an area of 4.5M sq. ft.
Amazon had acquired a 5% stake in Shoppers Stop more than two years ago, and to comply with the changing regulatory requirements, the department store chain set up a subsidiary for its online portal to directly sell at the e-commerce giant’s portal.
