Coronavirus: Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail to close stores till 31 March, suspends factory operations

New Delhi: Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd (ABFRL) on Monday said it will shut all its retail stores across India till 31 March, in order to ensure safety of its employees across all its establishments from the coronavirus pandemic. The company has also stopped its factory operations in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Odisha till 31 March, 2020, in line with the local guidelines, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail said in a regulatory filing. “In order to safeguard the risks to the health of our store employees & customers, as well as in line with the advisories from local, state and central government, the company has decided to shut all its retail stores until 31 March, 2020,” it said. [caption id=“attachment_1367699” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla. AFP[/caption] The company had already moved to “work from home” policy for all its office employees. “The business of the company has been significantly affected over the last few weeks and will continue to be materially impacted due to the current crisis. The uncertainty around the situation makes it difficult to ascertain the exact impact at this point of time,” the company said. The company further noted that “it will continue to assess the situation and will consider resumption of its business operations at an appropriate time”. ABFRL, with revenue of Rs 8,118 crore and with a retail space of 7.5 million sq ft (as on 31 March, 2019), is India’s first billion-dollar pure-play fashion powerhouse. It has a network of 2,714 brand stores across 750 cities in the country. Shares of Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd were trading at Rs 176.35, on BSE in the afternoon trade, down 5.62 percent over its previous close.