Lane Crawford confirms Hong Kong job cuts

A restructuring at Lane Crawford has led to job cuts at the retail company. Earlier this week, a number of Hong Kong employees were told that their roles no longer exist and were sent home, the company confirms.

"As a result of implementing a new organisational structure to support its omni-channel business strategy, Lane Crawford has redefined a number of positions while also making 22 positions redundant out of a total of around 1,500 staff", a company spokesperson told Human Resources online in an email.

The company declined to comment on the exact nature of the job cuts.

In a video obtained by Oriental Daily News, Lane Crawford president Andrew Keith, spoke about the changes at the 160-year-old company.

"It's never easy for anyone to see colleagues, friends, leave", Keith said.

He confirmed that a number of roles had ceased to exist, effective immediately. "As a key element of our business strategy, we are reshaping our organisational structure, and as a consequence a number of roles will cease to exist from today.

Colleagues who are affected by this decision have been communicated with one by one this morning and they have now left for the day."

Lane Crawford has been operating in Hong Kong since Scots Thomas Ash Lane and Ninian Crawford set up shop on what is now Des Voeux Road in 1850. The current restructuring at the company could be seen as the result of the struggling Hong Kong retail sector. Compared to the same month last year, the value of total retail sales fell 10.5% in August 2016.

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