125 staff face anxious wait at mail-order firm

Raven Mill Shopping Direct

WORKERS at mail-order firm Shop Direct are facing anxious times after bosses announced plans to cut staff numbers by 125 at their Chadderton headquarters.

The job cuts at Raven Mill, on Raven Avenue, will reduce staff from 650 to 525.

Bosses have cited a need to change the operations in their returns department for the reduction, claiming an improvement in their online product descriptions has resulted in two million fewer products being returned in the last three years.

But they say they have offered all affected employees alternative employment at one of their other sites in the North-West — the nearest of which is in Shaw — or voluntary redundancy.

A representative from the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, which represents many of the staff at the company, said any redundancies will be staggered, with some taking place by August and others next March.

A spokesman from Shop Direct said: “Shop Direct has announced a proposal to change some of our returns operational structure.

“Shop Direct has transformed from a catalogue-led business into one of the UK’s leading online retailers, with around 80 per cent of sales now online.

“To keep pace with this change we must continually review our operations to ensure efficiencies are met at every level. As part of these reviews, considerable improvements have been made to the way we process customer returns. In addition, improved size guides, videos and images have resulted in many fewer products being returned by customers, with levels dropping by around two million over the last three years.

Roles
“Shop Direct is therefore proposing to reduce the current team of just over 650 colleagues at our Raven Mill site by 125 people. However, affected colleagues will be offered similar roles at one of our other operational sites.

“We believe we will be able to accommodate the preferences of the majority of people on site, as we have sufficient roles within our other sites to offer jobs to those who want to stay with the company.
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