The Swedish fashion clothing chain H&M has now announced that it will be closing the store located in the Habaneras Shopping Centre in Torrevieja, as part of the “organisational, productive and economic” restructuring plan it announced at the start of the year.
Collectively, the restructuring plan will affect some 588 collective layoffs and the closure of 28 brands, which in the Alicante province also includes the stores in the L’Aljub shopping centre in Elche, and the Ociopía in Orihuela, with 50 people being laid off.
It is expected that the stores will close this year, according to the general secretary of the Federation of CCOO Services in Alicante, Patricia Carrillo Sevilla, “the first of the closures will occur in the Habaneras Shopping Centre, not because of the ERE, but because they get rid of the rent.” In this way, as Carrillo assures, on May 17 the blinds of this store facing the public will be lowered and on May 24 the rental contract ends so as not to reopen. The people who work in this establishment, however, have the option of being transferred to other nearby stores that are still open.
However, as stated by CCOO Services in Alicante, “the people who work in Habaneras are hesitating whether to accept the change because if they are taken for the moment to other stores affected by the ERE it will be a double agony ” -in reference to some of those nearby stores which are those of Ociopía and L’Aljub. The store in Zenia Boulevard is not currently in the line of fire. The premature closure in Torrevieja has been communicated to the staff only this week, on Wednesday.
The Overall Status
Thus, the ERE may be official as of September with this collective dismissal due to the closure of almost thirty establishments in the country. Unions and companies are at a negotiating table that the multinational announced – with a margin of more than six months before making the cut measures effective. Although talks are underway to ensure that the damage is as little as possible and “with the best conditions for workers”, the general secretary of CCOO Services in Alicante maintains that “they will not assume relocations of the people laid off in all stores.”
The H&M group has nearly 4,000 employees in the country and more than a hundred stores. Despite the proposed ERE, H&M globally obtained an attributable net profit of 8,7 billion Swedish crowns (775 million euro) at the end of its last fiscal year, which ended in November 2023, which represents an increase of 145% regarding the result of 3,5 billion crowns (316 million euro) recorded in 2022. Furthermore, by region, the firm’s sales grew by 11% in Western Europe, up to 7 billion euro, and by 9% in Southern Europe.
The reason for this decision, according to the Scandinavian company, is that they need to “adapt and perfect” the establishments in a “changing” shopping environment with respect to their customers. Furthermore, the data that the company made public months ago when it presented its 2023 financial year, showed that Spain would concentrate 17% of the brand’s closures worldwide.
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