Footwear specialist Clarks slashed more than 1,000 jobs last year as its sales slumped by almost £100m in a “year of transition” at the business.
For the full year to December 31, 2024, Clarks reported a pre tax loss of £39.2m, down from a pre tax loss of £39.8m in the previous 12 months.
Group revenue fell from £994.5m to £901.3m during the year, while gross profit was down from £481.1m to £432m.
The latest Companies House accounts show that the Clarks workforce was slashed during the year and decreased from a total of 7,413 to 6,161
In the latest Companies House filing, Clarks noted “internal and external” challenges during the year and said 2024 was a “year of transition” within the business.
Clarks continued: “Internally the major change was within the leadership as Jon Ram left his role as chief executive officer in April. To ensure the continuity in the leadership of the company, an interm executive committee was formed which is a sub committee of the board. A new chief executive will be appointed in due course.
The retailer noted that “major conflicts” worldwide alongside inflationary pressures resulted in reduced consumer demand for footwear during the year.
Clarks added: “Significant changes have been made to the operations in the year to right size the overhead cost for the current business size, refocus the marketing approach, reposition the product assortment and set up the business for recovery and sustainable profitable growth in 2025.”
This comes after Retail Week revealed last September that a former chief executive, Victor Herrero, had been drafted in to the “steering committee” in his capacity as a board member at Clarks majority owner to help run the day-to-day business.
Former managing director Joe Ulloa was also understood to have returned in a consultancy capacity at the time following another exodus of its senior management team including the likes of chief marketing officer Tara McRae, head of retail Nic Hayward and senior vice president of commercial Willem Van Rensburg exiting the business.
This followed the departure of managing director Bob Neville as well as chief product officer Victoria Jones.
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