Staff should be concern after damning BHS report
The chief executive of Northern Ireland’s leading retail association has said the welfare of BHS staff should be of “immediate concern” after a report criticised its former owner.
The report was published on Monday by the House of Commons Work and Pensions and Business, Innovations and Skills Committees.
It accuses former owner Sir Philip Green of “bulldozing” through the controversial sale of the high street retailer, and lays “full responsibility” for up to 11,000 job losses and “gigantic pension fund hole” at his feet.
The report says he chose to rush through the offloading of the beleaguered retail institution, losing money and encumbered with a massive pension fund deficit, to a “manifestly unsuitable” buyer.
“BHS’s demise has created many losers, particularly the 11,000 staff facing the loss of their jobs and the 20,000 pensioners facing significant reductions to their pensions,” said committee chair, Iain Wright MP.
“The actions of people in this sorry and tragic saga have left a stain on the reputation of business which reputable and honourable people in enterprise and commerce will find appalling.”
The Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association (NIIRTA) chief executive Glyn Roberts said the report marked a sad day for the UK’s retail industry.
“While I have no doubt there will be a detailed examination of this report on how this situation could be avoided in the future, the immediate concern should be how to support the thousands of BHS staff losing their jobs locally and across the UK,” he said.
“This is a sad day for the retail sector and the high street as a whole. The closure of the four local BHS stores will not just have an impact on their staff but also result in less footfall for surrounding retailers.”
The report found Sir Philip failed to invest sufficiently in stores, and suggests there was “little to support the reputation for retail business acumen for which he received his knighthood”.
It also accuses the Sir Philip, latter owner Dominic Chappell, and its respective directors, advisers, and “hangers-on” of a “systematic plunder of BHS” at the cost of thousands of jobs and pensions.
