Portsmouth retail workers face anxious wait after Arcadia enters administration

The retail giant owns high street stores including Topshop, Burtons, Topman, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins and Evans.

With seven of these stores in Portsmouth and Gosport, it’s a real concern for city council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for economic development, Cllr Steve Pitt.

Cllr Pitt said: ‘It’s obviously a concern that people who work in these stores may lose their jobs. We just have to hope that someone may come in and at least enable some of these shops to stay open.

‘There are undoubted concerns that the pandemic could lead to fundamental changes on our high streets. There’s no doubt these are worrying signs of what may happen to other shops in our area which provide people’s jobs and are vital to their wellbeing.

‘It’s not until we get into 2021 that we will know the full impact of Covid on our shops.’

Sir Philip Green's retail empire had failed to secure extra funding to pay its debts after sales slumped during the pandemic and has now been put into the hands of administrators from Deloitte.

Arcadia boss Ian Grabiner said: ‘The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic including the forced closure of our stores for prolonged periods has severely impacted on trading across all of our brands.

‘Throughout this immensely challenging time our priority has been to protect jobs and preserve the financial stability of the group, in the hope that we could ride out the pandemic and come out fighting on the other side.

‘Ultimately, however, in the face of the most difficult trading conditions we have ever experienced, the obstacles we encountered were far too severe.’

SEE ALSO: Portsmouth's new 24/7 gym opening on first day after lockdown lifts

With lockdown due to end on December 2, Cllr Pitt is urging people to support local traders in the run-up to Christmas.

He said: ‘While there is very little we can do to stop national chains such as Arcadia from going into administration there are things we can do to prevent this from happening to local independent traders. Shop local and support independent traders and prevent them from going the same way as some national businesses.’

Arcadia going into administration has put 13,000 jobs across the country at risk.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

You can subscribe here for unlimited access to Portsmouth news online - as well as fewer adverts, access to our digital edition and mobile app.

For Black Friday we’ve slashed the cost of a new subscription by 30 per cent - so you can get unlimited access to our coverage for as little as £1.40 a month.