Sofamaker Westbridge has announced its intention to enter into a period of consultation with employees across its managerial and support functions, with the resulting changes being implemented in the week commencing 2nd September.
In an already challenging retail market, Westbridge says it was further impacted by M&S’ decision to exit the bulky furniture market in March, with the last M&S orders received on 31st July.
It is understood that the decision by M&S led to a number of initiatives within the business to drive efficiencies and manage resources in the short-term, with volume recovery being driven through a number of new ranges being launched in Q3 with Westbridge's key retail partners.
Tom Prestwich, chief executive of parent company The Belfield Group comments: “During what is now considered the most challenging retail market since the financial crisis of 2008, we have been working hard to transform our business to be more efficient, more responsive and more customer focused, ensuring we can adapt to the market softness and laying the foundations of a more successful business for our employees, customers, suppliers and shareholders in the longer term.
"However, we recognise that to ensure the longer-term success of our business, we need to make more substantive changes in order to protect the business in the short term and ensure our future resources are in line with the latest demand profile in discussions with our customers.
"The decision to announce these proposals has been an incredibly difficult one and is in no way reflective of the hard work and dedication shown by our employees over the last few months, which has ultimately enabled us to retain our entire skilled operational workforce through short-time working rather than redundancy.
"As a result of these proposals, we believe that Westbridge will become a more resilient and profitable business, ensuring we can safely navigate the short-term market impacts and repositioning us as a more agile, more cost-effective partner in the medium to longer term.”
