The boss of Waterstones has warned staff the bookseller would have to cut jobs if the UK votes to quit Europe, as the upheaval would trigger a “significant retail downturn”.
James Daunt told employees a victory for the leave campaign would potentially “reverse much of the hard-won gain of the last few years” at the bookseller. Daunt made the warning in an email sent to thousands of its store staff, managers and head office staff.
Daunt is the latest business leader to offer a gloomy prognosis to employees. Earlier this month, JP Morgan chief executive, Jamie Dimon, warned that the US bank could cut as many as 4,000 UK jobs if Britain votes to leave the EU. BT chairman, Sir Michael Rake, and its chief executive, Gavin Patterson, meanwhile, have signed a joint letter with the Communications Workers Union and Prospect unions telling staff they want the UK to stay in a reformed EU.
In his email Daunt writes: “Many companies are telling their employees of the likely impact of a Brexit vote in the referendum. For Waterstones, I believe it will be adverse. To borrow the assessment of Christine Lagarde [managing director of the International Monetary Fund], the impact will be pretty bad to very, very bad.”
He continues: “For Waterstones, the impact on sales will reverse much of the hard-won gain of the last few years. To survive, we will have to return to cost-cutting; return, that is, to the brutal reality of job losses and stagnant wages.
“Most informed judgment is that Brexit will provoke a period of great economic uncertainty, and a significant retail downturn in consequence. Those who deny this are blithe in their reassurance.”
Daunt, the founder of Daunt Books and a former banker, was parachuted in to lead Waterstones in 2011, after it was sold by HMV to Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut for £53m.
Daunt concludes by saying: “You may wonder why I offer no argument beyond this stark warning. The EU, after all, has much to recommend it as well as, in the opinion of many, considerable defects. My concern, however, is to be clear about the probable consequence of Brexit for Waterstones.”
Other business leaders, including JCB chairman Lord Bamford and Sir James Dyson have come out in support of Brexit.
