The health and wellbeing retailer operates 750 stores across the UK and has been classed as an essential retailer as its range caters to customers with special dietary needs.

However, staff have called for the retailer to close its stores, with a petition mandating store closures to protect staff and customers garnering 2,600 signatures.

Staff who have signed the petition argue that the retailer’s stores are too small to practice safe social distancing and that, unlike supermarkets and pharmacies, the vast majority of what it sells and what customers are visiting stores to buy does not qualify as essential.