The pandemic reform: 159 stores, the first redundancy programme, exiting Levi’s (2020)

What is left after the cutting

What stands out in this restructuring is that the cutting reached stores, people and businesses simultaneously. A tidying-up that began with 33 closures ended as the consolidation of 159 stores; the voluntary redundancy drew 609 applicants, 1.5 times the number sought; and the Levi’s business closed after eleven years. How to read the fact that the first redundancy programme in the company’s history drew 200 more applicants than places cannot be settled from the published material alone. The company’s own account does not extend to the reasons people applied, and little can be said here beyond that the numbers remain.

In the numbers, the reform appears to have achieved its purpose. Profit returned in the year to March 2022, and operating profit recovered to ¥12.6 billion by the year to March 2025. Yet sales of ¥189.0 billion for the year to March 2026 compare with ¥254.8 billion in the year to March 2018: the pre-pandemic level has not returned. Fixed costs were taken out and the body rebuilt to produce profit, but the question of where to place the core of growth remains. The 2025 decision to choose a president from outside the founding family for the first time can be seen as lying on the same line.