Jobs could be under threat in Hitchin after Marks and Spencer have announced 7,000 employees will go.

The town's M&S Simply Food on Bancroft has proved to be popular with shoppers in our area.

However, across the country the store is struggling - with lack of sales in clothes and homeware understood to have negatively impacted the retailer's bottom line.

M&S's job cuts are among the most severe announced by a British company since the coronavirus crisis pushed the economy into its worst recession for decades.

Despite the retailer claiming that operating during the coronavirus pandemic had proved it could work 'more flexibly and productively' - with more staff multi-tasking and moving between food, clothing and home departments - the business is facing a huge challenge ahead.

In a statement, M&S said it was "too early to predict with precision where a new post-Covid sales mix will settle. We must now act to reflect this change".

Many of the redundancies the store has to make will either be voluntary or early retirements.

M&S has already revealed 950 store management and head office jobs at risk due to restructuring.

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At the height of lockdown in May, M&S boss Steve Rowe hinted of turbulence ahead saying customers might "never shop the same way again" after Covid struck, adding: "While some customer habits will return to normal, others have changed forever."