Shop Direct, the online and home shopping group that owns the Littlewoods and Woolworths brands, plans to close contact centres in Sunderland, Burnley and Newtown with the possible loss of 1,500 jobs. The group, owned by the Barclay brothers, said the decision to close the centres followed a review of changing shopping behaviour.

With more of its customers choosing to purchase over the Web, Shop Direct said it was set to exceed its target of 70% of its sales online by 2010/11, from 60% currently. This meant the company has more capacity in its centres than it needs to handle declining telephone call volumes. It took only 19 million calls in its contact centres last year, compared with 33 million calls four years ago.

Chief executive Mark Newton-Jones said, "We are a strong and growing business and we need to adapt to reflect the way our customers choose to shop with us."

NamNews - Friday 29th January 2010

 

Search NamNews Archive