British Marks & Spencer to close Dutch branches

British retail chain Marks & Spencer is closing dozens of stores in a number of countries, including the Netherlands, as part of a major cost cutting operation. In the Netherlands the storesi n Amsterdam and The Hague are closing their doors. These stores employ a total of about 160 people, ANP reports.

Worldwide 2,100 jobs will be lost. Marks & Spencer will discuss plans for these employees with the works councils in affected countries, and possibly aso with the unions, accoring to ANP.

These closures are part of a broader reorganization in which the chain already closed stores in Belgium, France, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Estonia, Lithuania and China. A quarter of the stores in the U.K. are changing drastically - 30 stores are closing and around 45 others will only focus on food from now on.

The reorganization is expected to cost 50 million pounds (about 56.2 million euros) over the next three years, but bring in 100 million pounds in the two years after that.