Massive job cuts at Dion Wired and Massmart
Massmart – which runs Dion Wired, Game, and Makro, among other brands – has announced planned job cuts at the company.
It made the announcement today, 13 January, and stated it will start a consultation process in terms of Section 189 and 189A of the labour relations act.
“The Massmart Group has recently conducted a store optimisation project that highlighted a number of underperforming stores in its portfolio,” said Massmart.
“Consequent to this project the Massmart Group seeks to advise shareholders that Massmart has commenced a potential store closure consultation process in terms of section 189 and section 189A of the Labour Relations Act.”
A total of 34 Dion Wired and Masscash stores and approximately 1,440 employees are potentially affected by this process, it said.
According to Massmart’s website, its Masscash division consists of the following stores:
- Jumbo Wholesale
- Jumbo Shield
- Rhino Cash and Carry
- Cambridge Food
Massmart’s businesses
Massmart operates a range of well-known retailers in South Africa in addition to the companies listed above.
These include the “Builders” stores, consisting of Builders Warehouse, Express, Trade Depot, and Superstore.
Speaking in December 2019, new Massmart CEO Mitchell Slape said that to positively impact the business they must realise that “every rand matters”.
“For every rand spent at the head office, Massmart stores have to generate R50 in sales to recover this cost,” he said.
This follows a big drop in profit for Massmart as retailers in South Africa come under pressure.
In its interim results for the 6 months ended 30 June 2019, Massmart reported the following figures:
- A headline loss of R800 million.
- A 52% decline in trading profit before interest and taxation.
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