Sweden company H&M, the world’s second-biggest fashion retailer, had announced recently that it will speed up its process to close 170 stores in 2020, 40 more than it had originally planned after reporting a 50% drop in net sales during Q2 2020.
The brand will key focus on online business from now on. The brand spokespersons say that they are doing so because it expects the pandemic to have a long-lasting impression and consumers are shifting their shopping experience to be more online than visiting retail stores.
Now H&M is accused of 1200 job losses in India. Gokaldas Exports has shut down its Euro Clothing Company II factory in the town of Mandya, near Mysore, in the south-western state of Karnataka. The company, which employs nearly 25,000 people in total at more than 20 factories in the state, blamed a loss of orders due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In a surprise announcement on 6 June, nearly 1200 garment workers employed in the unit were informed that effective immediately they no longer had jobs and the factory was closing. Several reconciliation meetings have taken place between the management of ECC II, a unit of Gokaldas Exporters, the state labor department, and aggrieved garment workers but they could not come with any solution yet.
The matter has become more high profile now with the intervention of Labour Minister and local MP. H&M entered India in 2015 with its first store in New Delhi. At present, the retail giant has 47 stores pan India.
