// F&M will place 80% staff on the gov’t emergency wage subsidy programme

// The retailer has become the latest to furlough staff

Fortnum & Mason has reportedly placed 700 staff onto the government’s emergency wage subsidy programme to subsidise the wages of 80 per cent of its staff.

The decision which was made on Wednesday, comes as the retailer faces a prolonged shutdown of its famous London Piccadilly store.

The 313-year old retailer has become the latest to utilise the furloughing scheme, which is designed to secure jobs that would have otherwise been lost during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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F&M will pay the balance of its furloughed workers’ wages, so that none of its employees are forced to take pay cuts during the lockdown period, Sky News reported.

The chain is continuing to sell its range of upmarket food online during the coronavirus crisis.

It also trades from a shop at London’s St Pancras rail station, one in the Royal Exchange in the City, and another at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal Five – all of which are currently closed after the government ordered non-essential services to shut their doors.

It also operates an outlet in Hong Kong, which opened last autumn and which remains open.

Earlier this year and prior to the pandemic, F&M praised its “bricks-and-clicks” business model for allowing it to post a strong sales performance during its recent Christmas trading period.

For the five weeks to December 29, the luxury retailer saw overall sales increase by 15 per cent year-on-year.

On a like-for-like basis among its bricks-and-mortar estate, sales surged 13 per cent, while online sales jumped 22 per cent and represented 39 per cent of the total mix, up three percentage points on last year.

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