A move by the flagship Fenwick store to capture an online market has left loyal customers fearful for its future.
The change is part of effort to modernise and is also working on refining their approach to technology savvy customers by launching an online store early next year.
While some Fenwick shoppers are ‘astonished’ that the company does not already offer online services such as click-and-collect, others are unhappy.
Alan Simpson said on Facebook: “Fenwick is a great store, with a loyal buying public coming through their doors. If they make drastic changes, simply to cash in on the online market, at the cost of losing quality staff and selling areas in favour of online booking kiosks, they will rip the heart out of a regional shopping favourite. The price of everything and the value of nothing, springs to mind.”
As part of the new policy the haberdashery department at the Newcastle store was also set to close.
Heather Lawrence, a loyal customer, called the department “the building block of the original Fenwick”.
Jenny Billinghurst said on Facebook she was “totally gutted” about the closure.
“Stores wonder why there is less footfall in shops,” she said. “They blame internet shopping. Now that isn't the full case. If shops shrink down their wares this results in less purchases. Fenwick has a superb Haberdashery. Fab and knowledgeable staff. Not everything is got on the internet, that's why we come to you! This will result in less visits to Fenwick in the future.”
After hundreds of letters and online posts and campaigns by customers, insiders now expect the haberdashery department will stay open. Instead, it will be relocating to another space in the store as the original location has been leased to a new furniture concession.
Customer Trish Bashton took to Facebook to celebrate. “Thanks for listening to your loyal customers and keeping haberdashery in the store,” she said. “Great that you have listened to what your customers want. So, so happy.”
The firm has been undergoing changes mostly to upper management to create a “functionally-organised structure, with local focus” ever since the appointing the new CEO Robbie Feather in January 2018, a move that followed resignation of Mark Fenwick and a report of annual profit fall.
From April onwards all management positions have been under a review across the company. The staff were required to decide between redundancy or re-apply for one of the new roles in the new “six-layer organisation between CEO and sales advisors”.
It is estimated that around 200-300 management positions, some of those in Newcastle, will be eliminated across the company - 15% of the total employees alongside the closure of the Leicester store with industry loss of 100 more.
Michael Marsh, individual correspondent for the Newcastle Chronicle, described it as “another blow for the North East” on Twitter.
Katy, 42, a sales assistant at the lighting department in Newcastle is anxious about what is to come to her colleagues.
She said: “Some of the staff are nearing retirement age, having worked for the company twenty-odd years. I fear these people will struggle obtaining a new role somewhere else.”