Tesco to slash 400 jobs in stores and head office shake-up | UK | News

Tesco is to cut about 400 jobs across its stores and head office, the supermarket chain has said.

The supermarket announced the move as part of plans to “simplify” the business amid a market which it said is “more competitive than ever”.

Managers at the company’s head office and Tesco Mobile phone shops as well as staff at its in-store bakeries will be affected.

Matthew Barnes, Tesco’s UK boss, said: “These are difficult decisions affecting our colleagues, but we believe they are necessary to enable us to invest in what matters most to our customers.

“Our priority is to support impacted colleagues and we will do everything we can to help them find alternative roles within our business. Today, we have almost 1,000 vacancies available.”

Tesco’s move comes after Sainsbury’s announced last week that it will axe more than 3,000 jobs and plans to shut its remaining in-store cafes as part of a major overhaul.

The headcount reduction represents about 2% of the company’s current 148,000-strong workforce and will see about 20% of senior management roles cut at the supermarket giant.

Meanwhile, Morrisons said on Wednesday (January 29) that its like-for-like sales rose 4.1% in the year ending October 27, while earnings jumped to £835million from £751million in the previous 12 months.

The annual results did not cover the key Christmas trading period, when Morrisons suffered IT glitches, causing delivery issues and forcing it to cut the price of items, including turkeys and Champagne for some customers.

But the supermarket did show its best quarter since 2021 for the three months to October 27, when sales rose 4.9% compared with the previous year.

Morrisons has already said it will axe more than 200 jobs as part of its own cost-cutting plan. Boss Rami Baitieh warned previously that supermarkets face an “avalanche of costs” after Chancellor Rachel Reeves increased taxes for employers in her maiden Budget.

Morrisons was one of more than 70 businesses, including Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s, that told Ms Reeves in an open letter that the changes announced in the Budget mean price rises are a “certainty”.

It said changes to national insurance contributions would push its costs up £75m a year from April, with an extra £10m of costs expected due to the impact of the changes on third party partners, such as security staff in its shops.

On Wednesday, business groups and economists welcomed Ms Reeves’ latest plans to grow the economy, but warned measures in the Budget will still weigh on companies.

Ms Reeves announced plans to turn Oxford and Cambridge into “Europe’s Silicon Valley” with a raft of housing and infrastructure development in the area and said the Government is backing a new third runway at Heathrow Airport.

Shevaun Haviland, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said the Chancellor has “laid down a clear marker” and the plans will make companies “sit up and take notice”.

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