3000 jobs go as Pacific Brands joins shutdowns

The shutdown of all Bonds, Sheridan and Bras ‘n Things stores will put another 3000 workers out of a job by the end of the day.

Bonds, Sheridan and Bras ‘n Things stores will shutdown at the close of business on Tuesday.

Pacific Brands, the giant Australian retailer whose outlets include Bonds, Bras N Things and Sheridan, will close all its stores by the end of Tuesday and stand down more than 3000 workers.

The latest store closures comes after a raft of retailers closed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, standing down or laying off thousands of staff.

In recent days, Myer’s closure has hit 10,000 workers, while the Country Road Group shutdown has put 5000 staff out of work. Xountless other retailers like Adairs, Accent Group, Michael Hill and Mosaic Brands have added tens of thousands of workers to unemployment queues.

Pacific Brands, bought by US group HanesBrands for $1.1 billion four years ago, will close until further notice all stores by the end of business hours on Tuesday.

The company has around 450 stores in Australia, including Bonds, Bras N Things, Champion and Sheridan full-price and outlet stores, as well as roughly 40 Sheridan concessions in David Jones.

E-commerce and wholesale customer channels will continue to operate unless the customer is closed,.

More than 3000 Pacific Brands staff, including full time, part-time and casual workers, will be affected by the closures and will effectively be stood down including. HanesBrands will continue to pay full salary to all affected permanent team members for at least two weeks after the store closures and team members are then able to access their full leave entitlements, including annual leave and long service leave (if eligible), should they choose to do so, the company said.

Hanes Australasia has already closed approximately 40 stores in the US, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK following the closure of non-essential services in those regions.

“We have been doing our best to keep our stores open and our people safe and in work,” HanesBrands group president David Bortolussi said.

“However, with the federal and state governments announcing over the past couple of days increasingly stringent measures for social distancing to keep us all safe, we now have no choice but to close all of our store networks across Australia, to protect our store teams and prevent the spread of COVID-19 in our communities.”

“We are doing the best we can to support our team members during this difficult period and look forward to looking after our customers again in store when we get through this challenging period”