Thorntons store cull puts 750 jobs at risk

THORNTONS WILL close up to half its stores, over the next threeyears, putting 750 jobs at risk, in the latest drastic action by oneof Britain's embattled retailers.

The chocolate maker will shut at least 120 of its 364 stores at acost of up to 4.8m and has earmarked another 60 branches forpossible closure.

The job losses will affect up to 17 per cent of the workforce asthe company marks 100 years in business.

The proposed cuts mean about 10,000 British retail jobs have beenput at threat in the past week after Habitat, Jane Norman andHomeform, the kitchens group behind Moben, entered administration.

Jonathan Hart, the company's new chief executive, said theclosures would be broadly spread through the country but would bemainly in smaller high streets and shopping centres.

The closures will be further grim news for Britain's provincialtown centres, which are feeling the pressure of the economicdownturn, out-of-town competition and the threat of the internet.

Mr Hart, who joined Thorntons in January, said he had spent sixmonths examining the business store by store.

He said the company was suffering from customers reining inspending because of economic uncertainty but that Thorntons had notdone a good job of selling its goods.

The company's shares fell 7 per cent to 58p - their lowest sinceMarch 2009 in the depths of the recession.

Mr Hart said Thorntons relied too much on Christmas and Easterand outside those periods "I would suggest the customer has to workvery hard to find a solution to their gifting needs".

He wants to lure more customers for birthdays, anniversaries and"just because moments".

Presentation in stores needs to be clearer and chocolates will bepresented outside their boxes to show off their quality, he added.

Analysts at Execution Noble said: "The key here remainsThorntons' ability to recapture sales lost from closed stores atother channels ... Management has a lot to prove."

As part of the shake-up, Mr Hart, who joined from Caff Nero, willtake control of the retail business. Peter Wright, Thorntons'marketing director and a former Tesco high flier, will leave onFriday.

The company is also targeting more than 2m in cost cuts,including the farming out of its warehouse and distributionoperations.

The store closures will leave its commercial arm, which sellsthrough supermarkets and other non-Thorntons outlets, as the biggestpart of the business.

Mr Hart's radical surgery follows two profit warnings byThorntons in 2011. In May, the company blamed the warm Easter for aslump in sales. That alert came after the pre-Christmas snow wasblamed for poor performance at the company's other big tradingperiod. Mr Hart said yesterday: "It would have been easier to say wehad a few problems than the reality of the situation. The highstreets of Britain were deserted in that very hot [Easter] week."

He said the company's strong brand had kept overall sales up 3per cent in the third quarter of the financial year.