Fashion brand Burberry closes half its stores

Fashion retailer Burberry has been forced to close over half of its stores throughout Europe, India, Africa and the Middle East as a result of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The British fashion brand has opted to make the move due to increasingly tight social distancing restrictions.

The store closures will result in a sharp decline in the brands yearly revenue and they have reported that they expect to see a 30 per cent loss on their fourth quarter revenue.

The brand which is headquartered in London has already shut down more than 85 per cent of their stored in the United States and expects to shut more in the coming months.

The luxury design market has been hard hit by this year’s event, many shoppers are out of work or unable to spend and stores are suffering from having to shut their doors. Burberry has chosen to shut down its stores as a mitigation tactic to prevent worse financial damage and to try to keep the company afloat.

Other retail brands are taking similar measures throughout the US and closing stores. Online shopping on the other hand is doing much better with many people taking their shopping to the web. The UK has pledged more than £350 billion to help businesses through the crisis, the funding is in addition to the support package from the government which gives struggling businesses access to loans and a year long break from business rates.

Some have said the measures do little for vulnerable workers and with some many large retailers shutting their doors more needs to be done to save people’s jobs and help stores to stay open. Hopefully British fashion brands like Burberry will be able to access the support they need to stay open.