GUS cuts 600 jobs

UK-based retail giant Great Universal Stores is cutting up to 600 jobs with the closure of its General Guarantee Finance car loans business.

GUS, which owns the Argos and Kay catalogue brands, said it had decided to close GGF because it had not received any offers for the business which adequately reflected its true value.

We have satisfied ourselves that this course of action is in the best interests of GUS

John Peace, GUS chief executive

GGF is based in Manchester, where it employs 100 people, and has another major office in Worcester.

The remaining staff are employed at various locations around the country.

GUS finance director David Tyler said: "Most of the employees at the group will lose their jobs."

The company said it had prepared a plan to manage the wind-up of GGF which would take more than three years to implement.

Difficult choices

GUS chief executive John Peace said: "The decision to wind down General Guarantee was not an easy one to make.

"However, after examining the alternatives closely, we have satisfied ourselves that this course of action is in the best interests of GUS."

The GGF job losses follow news in June that 800 jobs were to be cut over the next five years across the GUS home-shopping operation and its e-commerce business, Reality. This was prompted by a big drop in profits and the two companies have a total of 48,000 staff.

GUS also announced that it had sold its vehicle contract hire business, Highway Vehicle Management, to First National Group for £170m ($255m) in cash.

Highway Vehicle Management operates a contract hire fleet of 17,000 cars and 1,000 commercial vehicles.