Businesswoman and founder/chief executive of baby clothing retailer JoJo Maman Bebe, Laura Tenison, spoke to broadcaster Jon Snow in an interview which aired on C4 news last week, stating that ‘face masks will reassure people’.
Laura admitted that the last few months have been ‘pretty hard work’, saying that while online and mail order sales have been doing ‘fantastically’, the retail stores really need customers to start coming back through the doors again.
JoJo Maman Bebe – which has more than 90 stores across the UK – has seen business return across much of the store portfolio, with branches in the Republic of Ireland (which opened non-essential retail earlier than the rest of the UK) doing well and ‘nearly’ back to where they were this time last year.
Laura went on to reveal that city centre stores are more of a concern as they continue to struggle. On the issue of face masks – which are compulsory in retailers from tomorrow (Friday 24 July) – she said:
“I think we want clarity. It’s so straightforward – if we are all supposed to be wearing face masks then we know what to do…. What we need as a nation is to get the economy going again – within safe guidelines – and wearing face masks is one of those things that seems quite obvious.”
