Jenners staff to lose jobs in store shake-up

Published on Thursday 25 January 2007 12:19

AROUND seven members of staff at Edinburgh's historic Jenners store are to lose their jobs as part of restructuring by the new owner of its parent company.

Consortium the Highland Group snapped up the House of Fraser chain last year for 351 million. The restructuring, which is to bring around 180 redundancies to the group as a whole, will see a further two or three workers at Jenners sister store, House of Fraser, on Princes Street, also lose their jobs. The affected employees are believed to be behind-the-scenes sales staff.

House of Fraser, which was bought over by the Highland Group just over a year after it bought Jenners from the Douglas Miller family, said it planned to make changes to "organisational structures" across the business. The firm said it was in talks with staff whose jobs may be at risk.

John King, chief executive of House of Fraser, said: "We are changing the business to make ourselves more competitive. This will be a difficult time for some staff and we are committed to supporting staff as much as possible."