Boohoo boss Dan Finley has called an end to working from home for employees insisting they should not be “sat in bed wearing grey tracksuit bottoms” while working.
The chief executive of the major Manchester-based retail brand has been leading a restructure of the company since 2024 and told The Times he believes that remote working can impact business negatively.
Mr Finley said that all 1,500 head office staff would be expected to be present in the office five days a week, adding that the city should be “celebrated” and staff should be “living and breathing” it.
He believes that working from the office is especially important for a fashion company as the job involves wearing and testing the products being sold and observing trends.
The businessman, who moved from JD Sports to lead the Boohoo Group which also encompasses brands including Pretty Little Thing and Debenhams, says that young employees benefit from being physically present in an office.
He said that they are able to use the experience to learn from colleagues, collaborate and build relationships, which is difficult to do from home.
“My job is to turn around this business, get this business back into growth, get the share price going up and deliver value for all the shareholders,” he said.
The company, found in 2006 by Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane, exploded in growth during the pandemic when online sales rose exponentially.
During the lockdown many people transitioned to remote working with hybrid working becoming a common option for many office workers.
Last year, a survey by the British Chambers of Commerce, found that almost half of all business across the UK wanted staff back in the office on a full-time basis in a push to pre-pandemic arrangements.
“We’re seeing a clear shift towards more firms requiring full, on-site working, but it’s by no means a uniform picture,” said BCC policy director Jane Gratton at the time.
Average office attendance in the UK has been above 40 per cent every week this year, according to Remit Consulting’s ReTurn report released in May this year.
However, there has been resistance to a full return to working from the office by significant parts of the population who enjoy the flexibility of working from home. A review of 1,930 papers on home working in 2024 found that it can bring huge health benefits but can also lead to antisocial hours and being overlooked for a promotion.
Conducted by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Health Protection Research Unit in Emergency Preparedness and Response – a partnership between the UK Health Security Agency, King’s College London, and the University of East Anglia – it found that employees eat more healthily, feel less stressed and have lower blood pressure when able to work remotely.
