Food
FrieslandCampina is cutting nearly a thousand jobs because of the coronavirus crisis. Employees in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany are particularly affected.
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General
Sainsbury's is going to close 420 branches of non-food subsidiary Argos and remove all its service counters for meat and fish from supermarkets. The operation threatens 3,500 jobs.
Beer brewer Heineken saw its sales drop sharply as a result of the corona crisis. Although the third quarter showed improvement, the outlook remains uncertain, which is why the company is making redundancies.
Fashion
(update) Gap plans to leave Europe: the American clothing chain announces the possible closure of all its stores on the European continent. Nearly 120 stores are affected by the decision.
Electronics
Ceconomy, the holding company behind MediaMarkt and Saturn, is recovering from the corona crisis faster than expected. The German company is raising its forecasts for this financial year, although thousands of jobs are still at risk.
The creditors of the German department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof agree to the restructuring plans, renouncing billions of euros in debts. Nearly 50 stores and 5,000 jobs will be lost.
Another drama hits the British high streets: retailer Marks & Spencer is to cut an additional 7,000 jobs in the next three months, one in ten of the chain's total jobs. Especially its fashion department took a bad hit from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ceconomy (the former Metro branch that owns electronics chains Media Markt and Saturn) has announced a thorough restructuring, which may cause up to 3,500 jobs being cut and several stores closed all over Europe.
The Covid-crisis accelerates the reorganisation plans at Marks & Spencer: the British retailer wants to make three years of progress in one year, at the cost of another 950 jobs.
(update) French fashion chain Promod is reducing the size of its foreign activities. The German branch has started an insolvency procedure, the Belgian stores are also being looked into. However, only one Belgian store is closing.
Dutch fashion label G-Star is suffering due to the corona crisis: in the US and Australia the brand applied for creditor protection, in Sweden bankruptcy was declared. Yet the company claims to be financially healthy.
German department store chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof will close six fewer stores than initially planned, following negotiations with landlords. As a result, some 750 endangered jobs will be saved.
Ailing fashion group FNG (Brantano, Miss Etam) rearranges its board of directors. Former Flemish television boss Paul Lembrechts becomes CEO ad interim.
To recover from the Covid crisis, fashion chain Esprit has to cut costs. Half of its 100 stores in Germany will be closed, 1100 people will lose their jobs. A further 100 jobs will also be lost in the headquarters in Hong Kong.
Founder Pierre Mestre regains control of Orchestra Prémaman after a judicial reorganisation. This is good news for the Belgian branch of the baby chain, whose activities will be retained.
The coronavirus crisis has hit Celio hard: the French fashion chain has requested protection from creditors. For the time being, the Belgian stores are not affected by the measure.
