Clarks reduced its workforce by over 1,200 employees in fiscal 2024 according to the UK-based footwear company’s recently released annual report.
In the Companies House filing, Clarks noted that it ended fiscal 2024 with 6,161 employees, down from 7,413 in fiscal 2023. The filing noted that approximately 220 of those eliminated roles were global corporate positions.
The move came as chief executive officer Jonathan Ram left the company in April 2024, along with several members of the global leadership team. In his absence, Clarks interim executive committee was established to lead the business, the company said. A new CEO will be appointed “in due course,” Clarks added.
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In a statement sent to FN, a Clarks representative said that 2024 was “a year of challenging market conditions which had an impact on global performance.”
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“In response, we introduced a range of measures to reshape our foundations for the future – improving the efficiency of our operations to create better value for our consumers and set the business up to deliver sustainable profitable growth in 2025 and for years to come,” the statement said.
In fiscal 2024, the company said it achieved net revenues of 901.3 million pounds, down 9.4 percent from 994.5 million pounds in fiscal 2023. The company’s operating loss for the year was 18.1 million pounds, down from a loss of 20.3 million pounds in 2023.
In its recent filing, Clarks noted that its full price stores and outlet stores in the U.S. and the UK have performed below expectation in 2024.
The company said that consumers “continue to be very cautious in their spending with a greater appetite for lower price points,” which resulted in soft retail sentiment with both lower traffic in stores and sales conversion compared to last year. Plus, lower than expected margin rates due to continuous promotional activity was also seen. In the second half of the year, Clarks noted that retail momentum “gradually improved” with the focus on marketing and merchandising initiatives as well as clearance and new assortment plans.
As for its wholesale performance, Clarks said that it was broadly in line with fiscal 2023 for the company, and the U.S. region continues to be the largest wholesale market. In the UK sales volume benefited from off-price deals which are used to clear aged inventory but margin was adversely impacted as a result. This offset a shortfall in EMEA as a result of underperformance of some European countries, with the market and many wholesale customers continuing to be “overstocked” leading to lower stock replenishment.