John Lewis has announced plans to close its Edinburgh distribution centre and axe nearly 80 jobs, stating it can no longer support the retailer‘s growth.
The high street stalwart will move operations to its central distribution hub in Glasgow, where 40 new jobs will be created and all regional online orders will now be processed.
The depot, situated in the port district of Leith, is set to cease operations next month.
In March, the retailer‘s managing director Paula Nickolds announced that redundancies would take place throughout the year as back-end operations became increasingly automated.
A month prior to this, 400 jobs were axed at its head office.
“Our site in Leith is no longer suitable to support our growing business,” a John Lewis spokeswoman said.
“At the beginning of this year we began discussions with partners at our Edinburgh distribution hub about the future of the site, and after a consultation we have now confirmed that the site will be closing.
“Our site in Leith is no longer suitable to support our growing business, and by consolidating work in our more modern facility in Lister St, it will enable us to run a more productive model.
“We created an additional 40 new jobs at our Glasgow site as a result of this change, with the hope that a number of partners currently at our Leith site would apply for these roles, or others elsewhere in our business.”
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