Local Jobs Could Be At Risk As ‘Travis Perkins’ Announces Closure Of 165 Branches

National Builders merchents ‘Travis Perkins’ have announced that they are closing 165 brances nationaly with 2500 job loses expected. The Firm has  18 branches located across Southern Scotland and Cumbria including one in Stranrear and One in Castle Douglas in Dumfries and Galloway.

In a press release issued this week by The Group that own Travis Perkins it stated “We commenced a consultation process regarding the closure of around 165 branches across the overall branch estate, representing approximately 8% of the Group’s network. In addition, the Group is consulting on above-branch roles in the distribution, administrative and sales functions. In total, the Group expects to reduce the number of colleagues by around 2,500 or approximately 9% of the workforce.

Branch closures will be concentrated in the Merchant businesses, in particular the Travis Perkins General Merchant, focusing on small branches where it is either difficult to implement safe distancing practices, or where marginal profitability will be eroded in a reduced volume environment.”

Nick Roberts, Chief Executive at Travis perkins, commented:

“The COVID pandemic has created significant challenges across our Group and I have been hugely encouraged by the flexibility of our colleagues to adapt our business models successfully and at pace, which has enabled us to maintain safe working practices whilst continuing to provide an effective service to our customers.

Whilst we have experienced improving trends more recently, we do not expect a return to pre-COVID trading conditions for some time and consequently we have had to take the very difficult decision to begin consultations on the closure of selected branches and to reduce our workforce to ensure we can protect the Group as a whole. This is in no way a reflection on those employees impacted and we will do everything we can to support them during this process.

The Group has a robust balance sheet, strong liquidity position and I am confident that these proposed changes will enable us to trade successfully through this period of uncertainty with a cost base that better reflects the environment we are operating in.”

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