Carluccios and Brighthouse both collapse
Restaurant chain Carluccios and High Street hire store Bright House have both collapsed this afternoon.
Carluccios employed 2,000 people and had branches in Bromley, Bluewater, Canary Wharf and many others across London.
Bright House have stores in Woolwich, Lewisham and Dartford.
Many other restaurant chains and stores are in deep trouble. Many were heavily in debt or suffering losses even before coronavirus struck.
The US saw its largest ever increase in unemployment claims last week and Ireland today saw figures showing a vast increase in unemployment claims suggesting unemployment has already reached 12%. UK figures will not be revealed until next month.
I genuinely fear this is the tip of a very big iceberg.
Agreed. A lot of businesses that were clinging on before Covid-19 will not survive the lockdown and jobless figures are going to soar.
Very sad news. I feel for the staff at this very difficult time. Both companies have been having financial difficulties for a long time. With companies like Brighthouse bad debts are also a contibuting factor.
I agree I think this is only the tip of the iceberg and agree unemployment will go up. I am hoping the Government will step up Government Training Schemes for people wishing to train for new carers once we get through the Covid-19 crisis.
Unfortunately lockdown is vital in the fight against Covid-19 to try and get us through the crisis as people ignore social distancing rules.
** Contributing Factor **
I agree with the opinion that this will be tip of the iceberg.
Yes, the Government will underwrite 80% of salaries and a 3 month mortgage holiday (for owners) and they have offered business loans.
The problem is, when is the deferred payments supposed to be paid back by?
Even after the lockdown is lifted, the economic activity will not return back to normal for many many more months after.
Simply many many people and businesses will not be able to survive and there will be preditory companies who will sweep them up at a huge discount….
There are reports – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52114414 – of businesses being unable to access desperately needed cash and punitive terms being applied by lenders where they do qualify.
Unfortunately this doesn’t surprise me at all!
Whenever Govenrment come us with a policy that sounds good on the surface, dig a little deeper and it’s comes with traps!
The government is reminding banks of the bailout they received from taxpayers following the crash of 2008 – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52126658
These are very desperate times for businesses and staff that have been laid off some employers stating staff laid off until further notice. Others stating they do know if staff will be called back after the coronavirus is over.
This affects many many recently self employed people who may not have a years accounts as employed as drivers etc rather than actual business owners,
Other retail companies are currently recruiting for store assistants including Lidl’s. This may be of help to some people who have been recently laid off to help them through some difficult times a head.
The Council need to be working hard to try and attract new buinesses to our Borough and Town Centres which will hopefully recruit local people on to their work force.
So hopefully the empty units left behind when business close down can be put to a new use rather than the buildings left empty for long periods of time and fall in to a state of disrepair and neglect. These quickly become an eyesore and ruins the look of an area, Which the Council have been working hard to regenerate,
Empty units should be allowed to become residential homes. No matter how much we would wish it otherwise, the high street is effectively dead and those rotting shops could be put to better use.
Absolutely annonymous201486 i would be happy with that as long as the buildings were brought back in to use quickly and once converted to residential units are well maintained by the residents.
Sadly it is the anti social beahviour and lack of investment that as not helped Woolwich as a town centre.