Are Santander Slimming Down Branches At Last

molerat

One of my 3 (ex Abbey, A&L, B&B) has closed down. Does this mean they have at last realised that 3 branches in a small town is not viable. It was obvious but why has it taken them so long ?

societys_child

Close to me, there are 3 in the same high street but I suppose there are various reasons. Not least of which is what happens to the staff? Sacked, paid off, re-located? Suppose it all takes time.

dzug1

They've realised it all along but it's not an instantaneous process. It always was going to happen

In my local town there are two branches opposite each other. Neither is big enough to handle all the business. So I fully expect both to close and reopen as one new branch on larger premises - when something acceptable becomes available.

opinions4u

societys_child wrote: »

Close to me, there are 3 in the same high street but I suppose there are various reasons. Not least of which is what happens to the staff? Sacked, paid off, re-located? Suppose it all takes time.

To be honest, the floor staff are probably safe.

Same number of customers need the same number of cashiers and advisers. Management is the bigger issue. They cut could be from 6 or 7 to 2 or 3.

pmduk

Perhaps the lease expired? I suspect the real clear out of branches will occur once they've integrated the RBS branch network.

ses6jwg

No frontline staff have been made redundant.

BobQ

ses6jwg wrote: »

No frontline staff have been made redundant.

But they will do eventually. Its not tenable to have so many of them.

I'm surprised that when they took over Alliance and Leicester they did not expand on the use of Post Offices for basic transactions, they clearly met a customer demand and provided many local outlets. Of course they did limit the opportunities to hard sell services to their customers as they creep by the door.

opinions4u

BobQ wrote: »

But they will do eventually. Its not tenable to have so many of them.

Natural turnover of frontline staff will remove the need for redundancies.

I've been through numerous branch mergers and it's reasonably straight forward to redeploy management elsewhere.

I'm surprised that when they took over Alliance and Leicester they did not expand on the use of Post Offices for basic transactions, they clearly met a customer demand and provided many local outlets. Of course they did limit the opportunities to hard sell services to their customers as they creep by the door.

A tiny percentage of bank customers use post office services. Probably less than 1% of those who have the option to.

Sailmakers

Previous comment about leases is spot on. I think tidying up is more appropriate than slimming down...

IrishGypsy

opinions4u wrote: »

Management is the bigger issue. They cut could be from 6 or 7 to 2 or 3.

You're rather on the ball with that guess!

There will no doubt be more branches closing by the end of the year and it wouldn't be too hard to 'manage out' under performers that have merged into the other branches, leaving a smaller number of branches with better performing staff in them. (Doesn't matter if the customer numbers stay the same, there's only so many desks for advisers to sit at in each branch).

chambta

When my RBS branch becomes Santander (if this ever happens) there will be four branches within a hundred yards or so.

As two are literally next door I see no option but the closure of at least one.