A POPULAR beauty brand has suddenly closed all stores without notice, leaving dozens of staff out of a job.
Morphe has closed all seven standalone stores it operated across the UK, located on busy high streets and shopping centres.
1
The move leaves dozens of staff out of workCredit: Alamy
All stores closed for good on Wednesday, July 31, in a shock move that saw 73 members of staff lose their jobs.
The brand has said it is prioritizing selling its make-up range in other stores and online, in a new foray into the high street.
The chain was founded in Los Angeles in 2008 and specializes in the direct distribution of makeup and other beauty products to consumers.
The brand rose to fame in the 2010s after partnering with Shane Dawson, Jeffree Star and a number of other celebrities.
A spokesman for Forma Brands said: “We have therefore taken the difficult decision to close our seven UK outlets and one in Amsterdam.
“This move aligns with our strategy of prioritizing and expanding our successful wholesale and e-commerce operations, similar to our model in the US
“We have also facilitated the transfer of ownership of our wholesale and e-commerce businesses in the UK, which will operate as Forma Brands UK LTD., effective immediately.”
Here’s the full list of the seven affected stores:
- Manchester Arndale
- Manchester Trafford Centre
- Newcastle Eldon Square
- Nottingham, Victoria Street
- Birmingham Bullring
- London, Westfield Stratford City
- Cardiff, St Davids Centre
The move leaves dozens of staff members out of a job.
The fashion chain is closing all stores
Many former staff members have taken to social media to share videos of themselves appearing in stores littered with boards.
Affected staff were told they would not receive severance pay.
However, Forma Brands said: “In recognition of their commitment, parent company Forma Brands LLC has provided goodwill payments to all affected employees, equivalent to an enhanced severance package.”
The closure means that Morphe no longer operates standalone stores across the UK.
Your rights to severance pay
As a general rule, you will be entitled to statutory severance pay if you are an employee and have worked for your current employer for two years or more.
You will get:
- Half a week’s pay for each full year you were under 22
- One week’s pay for each full year you were 22 or over but under 41
- A week and a half’s pay for each full year you were 41 or over
The length of service is limited to 20 years.
Your weekly pay is the average of what you earned per week during the 12 weeks before the day you received your notice of redundancy.
If you are made redundant on or after 6 April 2024, your weekly pay is capped at £700 and the maximum statutory redundancy pay you can receive is £21,000.
If you were dismissed before 6 April 2024, these amounts will be lower.
However, the brand will continue to operate its two concessions at Selfridges in London and the Trafford Center in Manchester.
Morphe products will also continue to be sold in Boots and Superdrug stores.
Customers can also purchase the brand online through ASOS, Look Fantastic and Sephora.
RETAIL
Popular retailers such as Iceland, Boots and Matalan are reducing the number of their high street branches.
Several big names have fallen into administration in the past year, including Wilko, Paperchase and more recently, The Body Shop and Ted Baker.
The Body Shop fell into administration on February 13, putting almost 198 branches at risk of closure.
Since then, it has closed 82 locations.
It’s not all bad news for the high street, however, as several other retail and hospitality establishments have plans to expand.
Beer giant Heineken has announced plans to invest £39 million to reopen 62 UK pubs that have previously closed.
We have therefore taken the difficult decision to close our seven outlets in the UK and one in Amsterdam
Spokesperson for Forma Brands
Aldi has announced that it will open 35 new stores in the UK.
The opening is part of Aldi’s long-term target of 1,500 stores in the UK.
This year alone, the supermarket is set to invest £550 million in expanding its presence in the UK.
Aldi said that each new store opening will create an average of around 40 new jobs.
In recent months, Asda has opened hundreds of stores in a bid to compete with major players Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
B&M plans to open “no fewer than” 45 brand new stores across the UK in each of the next two consecutive years.
Purepay Retail Limited, the parent company of Bonmarché, Edinburgh Woolen Mill (EWM) and Peacocks, wants to open 100 new high-street stores within 18 months.
The exact locations where the 100 stores will open or when they will open have yet to be given.
In recognition of their commitment, parent company Forma Brands LLC has provided goodwill payments to all affected employees, equivalent to an enhanced severance package
Spokesperson for Forma Brands
One of the UK’s favorite bakery chains, Greggs, has exclusively revealed to The Sun plans to open new outlets by the end of 2025.
Home Bargains, which had just under 600 outlets until last June, said it wanted to “eventually have between 800 and 1,000 outlets open”.
The major discounter has not said when it aims to reach the 1,000-store target.
Primark is also opening new branches and investing in and renovating more than a dozen existing stores.
Screwfix is set to open 40 new stores across the country as its owner, Kingfisher, looks to expand the DIY brand’s national presence.
The brand opened two new stores in March, and three new stores will open this month.
Tesco has revealed plans to open a further 70 stores across the UK over the next year
WHSmith will focus on the travel side of its business, with plans to open new locations in airports, train stations and hospitals.
Why are retailers closing stores?
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are closing their doors.
Empty shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and often symbolize the decline of city centres.
In many cases, retailers are closing stores because they are no longer making the money they once were due to the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staffing costs have made it more expensive to keep stores open. In some cases, merchants closed and reopened shops at the other end of the high street to show how the city had changed.
The problem is that when a big store closes, the footsteps can be heard across the local high street, putting more stores at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers who want easy, free parking at a time when local governments have increased parking fees in cities.
Many retailers, including Next and Marks & Spencer, are closing high street stores and taking on larger, better-performing retail park stores instead.
Boss Stuart Machin recently said sales rose by 103 per cent when he moved the aging Chesterfield store to a new large store in a shopping park half a mile away.
In some cases, stores are closed when a retailer fails, such as Wilko, Debenhams Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Paperchase to name but a few.
What is increasingly common is when a chain fails, a rival retailer or private equity firm grabs the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may open a few stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely that many stores or in the same locations.
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education