Burberry to close Rotherham factory
BURBERRY, the famous luxury clothing brand, has announced it is to close its Rotherham plant with the loss of 290 jobs.
Production will now be focused in Castleford, where Burberry’s trench coats are made. The factory is now Burberry’s only remaining UK plant.
Although the 153-year-old manufacturer beat third quarter revenue forecasts with a 9% rise to £329m for the three months to December 31, like-for-like sales fell by 3% despite heavy discounting.
Sales from its stores in Spain and the US were also lower. In November it predicted that its results for the full year would be at the bottom end of expectations.
As a result the firm, famous for its camel, red and black check, is planning to cut 250 jobs in its underperforming Spanish market with the closure of its Thomas Burberry business.
The firm said the job losses would help protect it in tough trading conditions and were part of its cost saving strategy – £50m of which will help underpin profit in 2009/10.
Last year is closed its plant in Treorchy in South Wales.
“Revenue benefited from strong promotional activity, especially in December,” it said.
“This impacted the gross margin but enabled profitable clearance of excess stock. These trends are expected to continue into the fourth quarter.”
Burberry chief executive Angela Ahrendts added that its markets, “remained challenging and volatile”.
The group has 116 stores, 253 concessions and 76 franchised stores worldwide.
