In the latest in our series of columns from a ‘secret retailer’, one chief executive warns chancellor Rishi Sunak of the stark reality their business faces without access to one of the government’s coronavirus support loans.

Dear chancellor,

It’s amazing how much can happen in a month.

In the first week of March, I met with our chair to report our full-year results and I was proud to tell him we had just delivered our best-ever financial performance – top and bottom lines – in the history of our business.

Today, merely three weeks later, I had a call with him discussing, with grave concern, whether or not our business will survive the next three months.

Chancellor, I was greatly encouraged two weeks ago when you said the government would do “whatever it takes” to help business. This was exactly the message I had been waiting for, daring to hope for, because I knew our business had never faced a challenge like this before and we would need government support.

When you announced that £330bn would be made available to help businesses that needed it, I felt a surge of relief. This is what is required. Great news. Our government ‘gets it’.

“In our words and deeds, we put the health and wellbeing of our team, customers and society first. But we can’t access the £330bn and neither can many other companies like us”

But it transpires that none of that £330bn is for the business I lead. Instead, it is being divided between smaller companies up to £45m in turnover and businesses that have an “investment grade” credit rating or equivalent.

Our turnover last year was in the £250m to £500m range with a single-digit operating profit margin. Our accounts filings and tax are all up to date and our audit was signed off on a clean, going-concern basis. We have great customer reviews, strong and longstanding relationships with our suppliers, we are not in breach of any bank covenants and the profit we make is fully reinvested into the business to fund our growth plans, rather than being paid out to our shareholders.

We employ more than 1,500 people in the UK; most are under the age of 30. Around 60% of them are women and no one is on a zero-hours contract. Our leadership team is split 50/50 men to women and we have a zero median gender pay gap.

In our words and deeds, we put the health and wellbeing of our team, our customers and our society first.

But we can’t access the £330bn and neither can many other companies like us.

Your coronavirus job retention scheme is very welcome – we have furloughed the vast majority of our team – and the business rates holiday is also appreciated, of course.

“The cash hole created by closing our stores to protect our society is beyond the repair of any conventional bank lending or investor norms”

But here’s the thing – as a retailer, we are part of a sector that is the biggest private-sector employer in the UK. However, even though our industry employs more people than any other, people are not our biggest cost, chancellor. The costs of making our product, the rent for our stores – these are much bigger outgoings for us than our people costs.

So, here’s the rub. I believe you have honourable intentions and genuinely believed the retention scheme would protect jobs, and I’m sure for some businesses it will.

But chancellor, I must say very clearly that the scheme and a rates holiday is not enough to protect jobs for my company and many others like us in the retail industry. The cash hole created by closing our stores to protect our society is simply too sudden and too great – and it is beyond the repair of any conventional bank lending or investor norms.

It is not business as usual. It is not life as usual. We are in the midst of a global public health crisis; an awful, terrible threat. But we are also heading rapidly into a social and economic crisis of an unimaginable scale. We will beat this dreadful virus, but that will not be enough.

Chancellor, please do whatever it takes, now. The longer you leave it, the more it will take. If businesses like ours fail, the cost to fix our country will be even higher.

CaRe20 logo

Support CaRe20 today to help the UK’s shop workers during the Covid-19 pandemic

Retailers can help fund the appeal by contacting Claire Greenwood.

Individuals can donate to the CaRe20 appeal here.

How retailers treat their workers during this pandemic will define their brand for decades to come – join with RWRC, retailTRUST and the BRC to provide much-needed aid and assistance to the industry.