Michael Hill announced it would suspend all of its Australian and New Zealand stores indefinitely on Monday night.

"The current 'social distancing' requirements are not consistent with the day-to-day of our business," a statement said.

"The drop off in trade the company has experienced in Australia also reflects a customer base that is of course focused on more immediate issues."

The company said all employees had been stood down with access to leave entitlements.

Store manager at the Warrnambool Gateway Plaza store Sharon Templeton said the store employed seven people on full-time, part-time and casual contacts.

"'As far as i have been told everyone still has their jobs and its back to normal once we are past this period," Ms Templeton said.

She said the store had "been quite busy" in past weeks despite the company reporting trade dropping elsewhere.

"We are shutting for safety of staff and customers. Hopefully this will all blow over and we we will be back to work and with our customers as soon as we can," Ms Templeton said.

We have removed our paywall from our stories about the coronavirus. This is a rapidly changing situation and we want to make sure our readers are as informed as possible. If you would like to support our journalists you can subscribe here.