20,000 women to lose jobs in collapse of Arcadia and Debenhams

Almost 20,000 women are set to lose their jobs following the collapse of Arcadia and Debenhams. 

Hundreds of stores are expected to close after online giants Boohoo and Asos moved to buy the High Street titans. Boohoo has sealed the deal for the Debenhams brand and website for £55m, while Asos has entered exclusive talks to buy the Topshop and Miss Selfridge brands from Arcadia – without their stores. 

Topshop alone – which in its heyday sold ranges designed by supermodel Kate Moss – had more than 10,000 employees. 

Better times: In its heyday, Topshop sold ranges designed by supermodel Kate Moss (pictured)

Women will bear the brunt of the closures as they comprise four in five of the workforce – 19,600 staff. Add in the 6,500 made redundant at Debenhams last year and the figure tops 25,000. 

The takeovers will cause a headache for Chancellor Rishi Sunak: Asos and Boohoo paid £48.1m tax last year on sales of £4.5billion – a fraction of the £160m Arcadia and Debenhams paid in business rates. 

Retail is the largest private-sector employer, catering for 3m people. Two-thirds – mainly female – are part-time. 

The virus could reverse years of progress of getting women into work. Many shop assistants are women working part-time, while new jobs in warehouses and as delivery drivers are usually taken by men. 

Vivienne King, the boss of Revo, which has launched a ‘Shopkeepers Campaign’ to demand reform to the business rates system, said: ‘Women are disproportionally affected. 

‘The growth in online is creating new jobs, but they tend to be in warehouses and delivery, where the gender split is reversed, so it’s a double-whammy for women.’ 

Since the pandemic, Marks & Spencer has made 8,000 redundancies, Boots 4,000 and Argos 3,500. 

Amazon has hired 10,000 and Tesco 20,000, mostly to cater for online deliveries.