A major high street brand has cut more than 1,200 jobs as their sales have plummeted by nearly £100million.
Clarks have blamed the ‘challenging market conditions’ during its latest financial year for the staff cuts.
The shoe retailer reported a revenue of £901.3million for 2024, down from £994.5million in 2023.
New accounts on Companies House show Clarks’ workforce fell from 7,413 to 6,161 in the 12 months while it posted a pre-tax loss of £39.2million – a total of 1,252 job losses.
The latest deficit comes after Clarks fell to a pre-tax loss of £39.8million in the prior 12 months.
Clarks last reported a pre-tax profit when it logged a total of £35.9million for the 48 weeks to the end of 2022.
In its latest accounts, the firm said its results were ‘significantly impacted’ by an impairment of £32.1million of right-of-use assets and store property, plant and equipment.
It added its ‘focus is to return to sustainable sales growth combined with a cost-focused attitude to delivery healthy store profitability in 2025’.
Clarks has been led by an interim executive committee since its former chief executive Jon Ram resigned in April 2024 after two years in the role.
A statement from the board reads: ‘2024 was a year of transition within the business, as internal and external factors created a variety of challenges.
‘Externally we were faced with challenging global market conditions.
‘With a high number of major elections taking place in countries like the United States, United Kingdom, India, the European Union and several emerging markets, businesses and consumers faced uncertainty regarding potential shifts n trade policies, regulatory frameworks and fiscal strategies.
‘This had a significant impact on the economy, driving volatility in financial markets, influencing investment decisions and shaping economic policies.
‘Coming on the back of continuing major conflicts and inflationary pressures, this led to reduced consumer demand in 2024.
‘FY24 has therefore been a year of tradition for the Clarks Group with cost rationalisation and reduction to fix the foundations for our future.
‘Significant changes have been made to the operations in the year to right size the overhead cost for the current business size, refocus the marketing approach, reposition the product assortment and set up the business for recovery and sustainable profitable growth in 2025.’
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