Group managing director Jason Smith announced last month its proposal to ‘‘call time’’ on its long-running department stores in Invercargill, Gore and Queenstown.
A consultation about the decision was carried out over the past four weeks
Mr Smith said the decision was motivated by changes to the department store model — ‘‘which was in decline’’ — and issues around earthquake strengthening its building in Invercargill.
It was expected a final decision would be made by today.
An H&J Smith spokeswoman said yesterday the outcome would be made known at the beginning of next week after a staff meeting took place.
Mr Smith’s family has been running the business for 123 years in Southland and the company employs about 220 people, of whom 190 work in Invercargill, four in Gore and 20 in Queenstown.
Last month, Mr Smith told the Otago Daily Times the proposal to close the department stores in the three locations would take into consideration proposals from interested third parties or staff who wanted to continue to run parts of the business independently, such as Gun City, Paper Plus and school uniform sales.
