Next halts online, warehousing and distribution operations

Next has announced it is halting online orders due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The British retailer said in a statement that it has “listened very carefully” to its employees fulfilling online orders in its warehousing and distribution operations who feel they should be at home in the current climate.

“Next has therefore taken the difficult decision to temporarily close its online, warehousing and distribution operations from this evening, Thursday 26 March 2020. Next will not be taking any more online orders after this time until further notice,” the company said.

Earlier in March, Next published its full-year results and warned of a potential one billion pound drop in full-price sales in the 2020 financial year.

Next CEO Lord Wolfson said in a statement published with the report: “We have no experience of a similar crisis so there is no way of predicting the extent that the effect coronavirus will have on our retail and online sales.

“The evidence we have from sales to date in the UK and from our small international websites in the worst affected countries is that demand will be the biggest issue and although the virus is likely to impact our operations, we do not believe this will be as damaging as the very significant drop in sales sustained both in retail and online. Online sales are likely to fare better than retail but will also suffer significant losses.”

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