Leading books retailer Waterstones has announced a number of redundancies at its London Piccadilly HQ among ongoing COVID-19 disruption. Alongside these job losses, the group is to keep a number of select stores shut, with these targeted at its campus branches and a number of other less well sited locations.

In June, Chief Executive James Daunt was cautious in stating that the sales lost during this period would likely never return, while he expected a further loss for the group moving forwards as normality slowly returns. Despite this turmoil, however, Waterstones reported a strong online performance since March.