Play.com Closing

Play.com Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-20953357

The following story is that in the news this week, Jersey retailer Play.com closes direct retail business from March. Play.com is to shut down its retail business to become a marketplace-only business. Items sold were sold at a price of £15 or less to the UK VAT-free, this is because the Jersey based firm blamed the move on the ending of Low Value Consignment Relief. This has resulted in all of the 147 staff from the Jersey offices and 67 of the staff from the Cambridge and Bristol offices being made redundant as a result of the closure. Play.com will now become more like a shopping mall, no longer selling directly to customers. The LVCR (Low Value Consignment Relief) loophole was closed by the UK government in April 2012.

In a statment made by Play.com they said, "Moving forward we are intending to focus exclusively on our successful marketplace, which is our main business area, and to phase out the direct - retail part of our business." The changes, confirmed by a spokesperson, said that the changes are meant completely pulling out of Jersey, but about 200 staff would be left in a restructured company based in Cambridge. In total about 600 people have lost their jobs in the island because of the end of the LVCR, said Jersey's economic development minister, Senator Alan Maclean. He also said, "I'm saddened, this is a Jersey business, set up in the island that did extraordinarily well, that became a global brand. We will work with other businesses and enterpreneurs to help them develop the next Play.com." He said the government would do all it could to help and support those who were out of work because of this. 'Another hammer blow' referred to the island's economy by David Warr, president of Jersey's chamber of commerce. David stated, "That's a significant increase in the number of people unemployed... and obviously that should be a concern to everyone. I think we are going to have to work very hard to find these people new places to work."

Play.com was taken over by Japanese e-commerce operator Rakuten in September of 2011. Rakuten paid £25M // $39.3M // 28.6M Euros for Play.com, and at the time of purchase it had 14M registered users and was one of the largest online retailers in the United Kingdom.