Massive 297-shop shoe chain to axe 'unviable' stores across the country - as bosses blame Labour's budget
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A huge shoe shop chain has announced it will have to close 'unviable' stores, blaming the Labour government's budget. Shoe Zone - which employs about 2,250 staff across 297 stores in the UK - said the Chancellor Rachel Reeves's move to increase employers' national insurance contributions and increase the minimum wage has led to 'significant additional costs'.
'These additional costs have resulted in the planned closure of a number of stores that have now become unviable,' the firm said in a financial update this morning. Shoe Zone - which employs about 2,250 staff across 297 stores in the UK - is shutting shops, the company announced today as it blamed the Chancellor's recent Budget.
It did not say how many stores had shut or the number of workers affected. But the group has already been closing loss-making stores over the past year, revealing in October that 26 sites had been shut on a net basis - 53 closed, less 27 opened - in the year to September 28.
Shoe Zone said it had also seen 'very challenging trading conditions' since the end of September as shoppers have pulled back spending amid unseasonal weather, adding that consumer confidence had weakened further since the Budget in October. Shares plunged by as much as 49 per cent this morning as the company cautioned that due to the tough trading and extra wage bill, annual profits would be lower than expected.
The firm also cancelled its final shareholder dividend payout for 2023-24. It slashed guidance by up to half, warning that underlying pre-tax profits were now set to be not less than £5million - down from £10 million previously expected for the year to September 27 next year.
