The future of Port Macquarie's Big W outlet remains unclear after owners Woolworths confirmed 30 stores within the current store network would close.
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That decision represents about 16 per cent of Big W stores.
The closures will take place over the next three years.
Coupled with the store closures, Big W plans to close a warehouse in southeast of Adelaide in the 2021 financial year, with one in Queensland to follow two years later.
A Woolworths group spokesperson said the decision to close the stores and warehouses follows a review of operations.
"Following an extensive review of the business, we have made the difficult decision to close approximately 30 BIG W stores over the next three years," the spokesperson said.
"We will also close two distribution centres at the end of their leases.
"These are not decisions we have taken lightly and we regret the impact this will have on affected team members.
"We have made these decisions to create a strong, profitable and more sustainable store and distribution centre network that better reflects the rapidly changing retail environment."
We have made these decisions to create a strong, profitable and more sustainable store and distribution centre network that better reflects the rapidly changing retail environment.
- Big W
The decision to close the stores comes despite an improvement in Big W's recent sales momentum with comparable sales growth in the third quarter up some 6 per cent.
Despite that sales uplift, the profit improvement remains slower than planned with Big W currently expected to report a loss before interest and tax in 2019 of $80 to $100 million.
Big W lost $110 million in 2018.
It is believed the review was undertaken to help Big W maintain a strong and profitable store network where all stores make a contribution to a viable Big W in the long term.
The spokesperson acknowledged that the announcement, without confirmation of specific stores, will create some uncertainty for our teams and the communities in which we operate, particularly in regional areas.
"We want to emphasise this review has never been focused solely on our regional stores but our entire network," the spokesperson said.
"Details of store closure locations will not be released due to ongoing discussions with landlords.
"In the interim all BIG W stores will continue to trade as normal.
"The majority of our store network is set to remain open and we're committed to doing the right thing for our team in impacted stores.
"We will inform our team members, customers and community stakeholders well in advance of changes to any specific store."
Big W operates from the Settlement City complex in Port Macquarie.
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