BEALES bosses have announced a store and head office restructuring in a bid to tackle the tough financial climate predicted for 2012.

Staff at Bournemouth and Poole’s Beales stores are now involved in a consultation, which chief executive Tony Brown told the Daily Echo is about “making the business stronger” and “protecting jobs, not losing jobs.”

UK retail businesses are bracing themselves for continued challenging trading conditions, as forecasters paint a grim picture for economic growth this year.

But Mr Brown insisted: “Our aim and the intent of the business is to ensure there are as few compulsory redundancies as humanly possible.

“These are difficult times for everybody.

“Our stores are looking at how they can adjust hours so nobody loses their jobs.

“Everything is being done in full consultation with our people to get to the agreed level of restructuring we need to achieve to meet the future climate.”

Last year Beales chiefs signed a multi-million pound deal which they said made them the third largest department store in the UK.

The Bournemouth-based company bought 19 department stores from the Anglia Regional Co-operative Society in the deal worth an initial £7.5m.

It meant Beales’ premises increased from 13 to 32, and its workforce doubled to around 2,500, including concession staff.

On the current restructuring, which staff learned of during in-store announcements yesterday, Mr Brown said: “We are looking at restructuring and reorganising our business in line with the challenging economic conditions that the country as a whole is seeing.

“We had a reasonable Christmas – this restructuring is about what is going to happen, not what has happened in the past.”

The history of Beales

Beales was formed in 1881 by John Elms Beale in Bournemouth.

In the 1960s it expanded into Poole and subsequently acquired stores in Bedford, Southport, Bolton and Winchester.

In 1995 the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange and as part of its acquisition strategy purchased stores in Kendal, Yeovil, Worthing, Ealing, Tonbridge and Horsham. Ealing has closed but two premises in Hexham and Rochdale were acquired.

Among the new stores bought from the Westgate division of ARCS were Harrogate, Skipton, Spalding, Skegness and Cinderford.