Seasalt, the successful Cornish lifestyle-fashion brand, is considering a number of redundancies and it’s blaming higher taxes following the Autumn Budget that increased employers’ National Insurance contributions.
Seasalt
The company said the redundancy move was “in order to meet the challenges presented by an ever-changing retail industry” and that customer sentiment has continued to decline, impacting the outlook for trading conditions in the year ahead.
“As a business here at Seasalt, we are not immune to these very real concerns,” it explained. “In order to meet the challenges… the majority of those beyond our control, Seasalt must remain agile so that we can protect our business for the long term.
“To continue investing in our growth plans, focusing predominantly on store and partners expansion, and large-scale projects to enhance our operations, we have thoroughly reviewed our cost base, to ensure our expenditure is not outpacing our sales and equally achieve the growth that is essential to the viability of our business.
“This analysis has included looking at efficiencies and overall productivity, a transformation of our head office structure and a review of our retail team operations, along with, where possible, reducing the expenditure necessary to realise our sales growth.”
It all means a number of roles will be placed at risk of redundancy across the business.
The company has 76 stores around the UK and said in January that it had seen a big jump in sales for the festive season, despite it having to deal with major pressures on costs. Total sales, including stores, online, and partners such as M&S, Next and Zalando, were up 10% year on year in the final five weeks of 2024.
Back in May it had also filed accounts for 2023 showing turnover rising but some profit measures falling as investment and one-costs hit the figures.
It opened its first US store last year and plans two more in the short term.
The news on redundancies comes just after reports that its chief information officer Mel Wilcox has stepped down after less than two years. Drapers said she’s left “to seek new challenges and opportunities”.
